2095/Apokolips Now: Intergang's Last Stand

Apokolips Now: Intergang's Last Stand
Date of Scene:	12 September 2017
Location:	Manhattan
Synopsis:	Intergang makes one last gambit, and it doesn't pay off.
Cast of Characters:	Black Rose, Super-Man, Rainmaker, Wasp (van Dyne), Hawkeye (Bishop), Miss America, Phoenix, Leah
Tinyplot:	Apokolips Now

---

Black Rose has posed:
    The text message had come through to Jean's phone that early evening. Yana Asarov had left Xavier's to go to an important dinner function with her family, with staff's approval with it being on a school night. But, the text message had come: 'Ms. Grey. I need your help. There is going to be an Intergang attack on the STAR Labs convoy coming through Manhattan in twenty minutes. Dad figured it out just now. Law enforcement in danger.' And then another text message: 'I don't know who you know, if anyone, but, please help. Avenge? JL? F4? Bring help if you can.' And then moments later, the next message came in, 'My friend and old teacher is on that convey. I have to go help if I can. He's a good man.'

    And indeed, the STAR Labs convey was being escorted by several large, armored vehicles, already expecting trouble. Whatever they are shipping, and wherever it is going -- it's enough to warrant a hefty escort. Three large semi's, each perhaps 500 feet from the other or so as the drive are seperated by two military vehicles between them as well as another in the front, and one in the back.

    Yet, presently, there is no sign of Intergang. Rumors had that they were almost busted down. Gone. And, they'd been completely forced out of Gotham, Long Island, and Metropolis by now, their forces expunged by largely heroes, and cleaned up by law enforcement sweeps. Some, even, by this point, had simply surrundered knowing the envitable and hoping for a lighter sentence. But all leads, all intelligence pointed to Manhattan.

    Yana Asarov had left her cellphone on for one very large reason. She figured Jean could find her with that with all the technology at the X-Men's disposal she'd seen, finding her cellphone in a sea of them would be a relatively simple thing. And, she's nervously pacing at a busy intersection that leads into the technology center of the city, easily spotted by her electric blue hair, and her ferverent eyes cast down the street, waiting. Waiting was always the worst part.

Super-Man has posed:
Kenan was taking a test. The Ministry he works for was testing how long he could maintain concentration and if he suffered power degradation over time. It was arranged for him to run from Beijing to New York, with his progress monitored along the way by STAR LABS (which has facilities in many major cities along the way). He had rested the day there...it had taken about twelve hours to reach here and would take as long to get back. He was betting ready to head back when the call about an attack on the convoy came in. Now STAR has been helpful and goos hosts for his visit, he can not just sit by and let their convoy be attacked.

Focusing his energy into his feet, he runs to join the convoy. Moving to in front of the lead vehicle, he stops and uses his super vision to look for signs of attackers.

Rainmaker has posed:
    Midtown is not usually Sarah's thing. Really, the blatant commercialism that flashes from screens and displays everwhere in Times Square sort of annoys her; she's always found it a bit crass. But then again, that's sort of how it works. Doesn't mean she has to like it.

    Today though there was a problem with the train she'd normally be taking back home to New Urecht, and the next train wasn't due for hours. So she figured 'well, I'm here' and went looking for someplace interesting to eat at. It's probably stretching her funds a little to do so, given the prices around here, but hey, she got to walk through Four Freedoms Plaza, which was kind of neat to see.

    She's currently sitting at an outdoor cafe, a French one, called Chez Axel, munching on a bit of quiche with a fresh made bagette and a small tub of butter nearby. And because it IS good food, and she's not in a rush currently, she's taking her time.

    After all, she can just fly if she really has to. She just prefers not to. People notice girls who start flying.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
    Manhattan is a relatively big place. Mathmatically speaking, the odds of randomly walking into a helpful person is pretty high, as everyone is usually more concentrated on their own doings than not. Higher still are the odds of someone who is not only helpful, but also has the ability to provide more...unique....assistance. It is almost akin to winning the lottery. But, then again, this is Manhattan...and stranger things have happened.

    Walking out of her studio, Janet van Dyne is alone on the sidewalk, smartphone in hand. "No, get the fall line ready for Elle. Save some of the good pieces for a surprise show in Paris. Yes, you know the ones. They will *love* it there. I don't want to play my cards too early." A glance up at the convey draws a light sigh. "It might take me a bit to get over there. Yes, I am walking. What do you mean, why? You think someone is going to try to mug me or something? I like to see them try..."

    As it is common knowledge just exactly who Janet is to most people, there isn't a lot of trouble around her. Fashion designer and superhero? There is mostly a mix of awe from most...and caution from the less savory types. At least, for now.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    "Hey." comes Kate's text to America. "STAR Labs convoy. Might want to trail it. Come get me?"

    This was the deal they made, she would let America know if she got any intel on the high-tech gangs. Well, she doesn't technically have any information, but she had heard about the cpnvoy. How? She just happened to be working in Tony Stark's office.

    Hawkeye was ready, armor on, gear checked, quiver filled. She waited on the roof of the apartment building she used as a makeshift headquarters.

Miss America has posed:
    Waiting. A necessary evil. Alternatively: a pain in the ass.

    America Chavez leans more towards the latter interpretation, but she's come to accept it as the necessity it is, when it comes to this sort of thing. Trouble doesn't wait until you're ready for it, after all; more often than not, it does exactly the opposite, a fact that she's seen play out to devastating ends in so many different scenarios. She knows: trouble tests the very limits of your patience before it decides to kick you in the ass.

    And so, the waiting. Ever since Gotham, Intergang has been very thoroughly on America's radar, if just for the style of weaponry alone. She's been doing her level best to track their movements with her limited resources -- a fact made easier when you have contacts like Kate Bishop. Currently in New York, having tracked some semblence of Intergang to the city, the surly, punch-happy young woman is currently planning her next course of action when she receives that text. She blinks. Tilts her head. And then--

    <K. On the way.>

    That was about fifteen seconds ago, give or take, a brief window in which the Latina girl sends off one more text before taking off. Which is about when America lands in a smudge of star-spangled colors next to Kate, dressed down in a sweater emblazoned with the US flag across the front and a pair of denim cutoffs, like she just threw on whatever she could find.

    "Yo. Ready?" it's about all the time Kate has before her friend looks to just scoop her up and take off again in the direction of that convoy. Screw waiting. She's already done plenty of that already and, as mentioned: it's a pain in the ass.

Phoenix has posed:
JEAN: 'okay, but absolutely don't go in there if you don't have to, it's gotta be dangerous.'

FIVE SECONDS LATER

JEAN: 'goddamnit.' ::thing_frown3:: ::bat_glower8::

JEAN: 'okay well i'd say don't die, but.'

JEAN: 'i mean, don't, but, y'know.'

JEAN: 'whatever, i'm on my way!' ::fire:: ::bird::

EIGHTEEN MINUTES LATER

After a certain point - once traffic grew dense, a ways into the city - it became more efficient to simply fly-- which meant bringing Kurt's borrowed '26 Tesla along for the ride, rather than just leaving it somewhere. Thus, Yana should have no problem catching her when she arrives, drawn to the Russian girl's pin; all she needs to do is look up for the swiftly expanding shadow of green automotive ingenuity. As the shadow engulfs Yana, the vehicle pauses to let Jean emerge from the driver's side, fire already burning her street clothes away to leave green and gold in their place.

"What's the situation?" she calls down while descending with a sweeping gesture that sets the car gently beside the sidewalk. "Do you have numbers-- anything tactical to work with?"

Leah has posed:
A text message went towards Leah, from America. Perhaps by accident. Did she give a real number? Did she ever receive it?

Uncertain.

Even so she showed up. She is standing on a street corner, recognizable to America at least because she's in the same dress, holding a paper takeout cup and consulting a small brass wrist-watch as she marks time.

The cup comes to her lips and Leah takes a small sip. Then she turns her gaze upwards towards the heavens. Maybe she's going to follow America, like a vulture!

(Not THE Vulture, of course. Different man.)

Black Rose has posed:
    "I'm sorry." Yana seems sincere, as she looks up to Jean, even as the convoy nears. "But. You said you wanted me to be open. So, this is me being open." And, hey. She -is- asking for help. It's a first. She looks worried. Upset. "No. But, this guy was acting funny at dinner. Dad recognized him. He - read some stuff off his body language. Figured the rest out. I think they're going to use everything they have, from what he said. It's -- all or nothing for --"

    It's then that everything goes to hell. With Intergang, it's only a moment of time. At first, it comes from behind the convoy, and the military vehicle keeping watch is incinerated and topples over at a flare from a motorcycle rider in all black.
    And then, from a side alley another motorcyclist guns out, firing another blast of insidious energy weapon, that (to some) all-too familiar blue-light flare that engulfs the lead military vehicle, while yet a third motorcyclist shoots out from the opposite street side, aiming for the first visible person he sees -- Kenan Kong. The Chinese Superhero is hardly known in America, afterall -- and unknowns are either dangerous unknowns that need to be elminated or easy targets. Either way, the gunner is betting taking Kenan out is a good idea. Armored trucks move in on other various sidestreets, pinning the convoy in, as Intergang begins it's final push and ploy for power.
    As the convoy screeches to a halt and the first semi-truck collides into, and through the suddenly blasted vehicle, it jacknives immeidately, blocking the thoroughway completely if the flaming armored vehicle wasn't already doing that. Half of Intergangs Job, then, is already done as far as controlling their enviornment. Several more armored vehicles begin pouring out into the main drive, suddenly, each moving out of a non-descript parking garage, having waited out of the line of sight of prowling heroes and sweeping cameras. As shots begin to fire from those four military vehicles towards the Integang members moving in, overhead the sounds of a helicopter can be heard, and a laser-blast from the heavens, from that helicopter takes out the first section of military resistance, obliterating one of the vehicles entirely, and sending several men and women to the ground - either dead, or severely injured, or simply ducking for cover.

    It all happens so fast. So. Damn. Fast. First, there's a convey, and then, there's just explosions, after explosions. This? This is what she'd told Jean her fater would never do. Risks. Dangerous. And, ultimately, self-defeating. It angers her. She looks to Jean, "I've got the motorcycle guy." And, she begins to run, fast. Not Flash-fast. Not Quicksilver-fast. But, 100mp hour fast -- faster than expected, and that close hard to aim at her from so upclose, and her foot connects into the motorcycle's tire to the side, hard. Hard enough to flip the bike out from under the first rider's seat. Yana follows up with slamming her fist into the man who begins to fall ... very, very slowly. In super-slow motion. She grabs his firearm out of his hands, and then suddenly as if the slow-motion had been stopped and the video set on fast-forward, the man slams into the concrete. Good thing he's got a helmet on. But he's thoroughly unconscious.

Super-Man has posed:
Kenan catches sight of the advanced weaponry barely before the attack begins. He follows his standard practice and puts his energy into his stomach...rendering him nearly invulnerable. The flare of blue energy hits him. It hits him HARD, like a mule kick, it knocks him to the ground and knocks the wind out of him. He is alive, thanks to his powrs and his containment suit, but that hurt.

He fights to remain in control, fear or anger could ruin his focus and cost him his powers. Do what Superman would do, concentrate on stopping the bad guys and saving the innocent. Power to feet, move fast...grab as many of the weapons away from the enemy as he can as fast as he can, Hopefully they can not shoot something moving at the speed of sound...

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
    "Well...that's not something you see every day..."

    Janet pauses for a moment, seeing the flying automobile....then remembers she has a phone to her ear. "Oh...it was just a flying electric car." The tone given was that of complete nonchalance...as if it is perfectly normal to see a flying car, or a telekinetic emerge from it and park it with a wave of her hand. "Yeah....it's a newer car." As if that helps with the explanation.

    And then? Gunfire and chaos. Janet ducks in instinct...but she doesn't run away. She does, however, adds a comment to the phone. "Start the shoot without me. I need to fly." The phone hangs up and is swept into a pocket all in one fluid motion as Janet drops in size to just under 4 feet....just enough to allow her insect-like wings to emerge from her back as she takes to the skies. She doesn't fly too high, though. Instead, she shifts into protector mode and ushers a group of people out and down a side alley, getting them out of immediate harm's way. With the way she instructs the people to help with the wounded and get out, it seems as if she has done this sort of thing before.

    However, as a gunner decides to play havoc, Jan does let loose with an bioelectric blast towards him, with the intent to disarm, if not outright stun. If it wasn't apparent by the wings and the flying before, the tell-tale yellow blast announces that the Wasp is in the vicinity.

Phoenix has posed:
"Thank you for letting me know," Phoenix replies, sincere despite the frustration in their log. "Okay-- " Yana gives her the rundown and gets brisk nods in return.

"-- gimme some info about your teacher, and I'll see if I c

*zzzZZZZZAAAAKT!*
*FWTHOOOM!*
*KRRRRSH!!*

Red hair and gold sash flutter on invisible winds as the redhead clutches her head-- not to dampen the cacophonous violence that has suddenly descended upon Manhattan, but to bear the screams it sets to echoing within her head and heart.

Yana's got the motorcycle guy. Phoenix's got a brain that wants to ooze out of her skull, out of the black tides rising around it as Intergang makes its move. Yana's got the motorcycle guy. Philip's got a steering column wedged in his sternum. Louisa's got a lifetime of therapy ahead of her-- if she makes it to a hospital in time.

Yana's. Got. The motorcycle. Guy.

{{I've got the helicopter.}}

Psychic walls snap into place, the deathly haze recedes, and green eyes snap upwards, locking onto the helicopter as her consciousness leaps into its pilot's.

{{Are you the only aerial support?}} she wonders of the pilot, who briefly forgets how to fly-- how to do anything but what Phoenix wants him to. {{Do you wanna crash, or do you wanna help me clean up this mess you've made?}}

Rainmaker has posed:
    The first shot, or more, the explosion, has Sarah tensing. The second explosion has her diving for cover, as her fellow diners and passerbys look around for what's going on. By the time the accident happens, and the helicopter opens fire, full on panic grips the civilians in the area as they begin fleeing from the battle taking shape.

    Except the handful of heroes...and, well...Sarah.

    She doesn't know why the hell she isn't. This isn't her job, or her calling...or at least she never really has considered herself a hero like you see on the news. And she's spent a couple years now just keeping her head down, trying not to draw attention to herself. More interested in helping out people like herself in need of a helping hand, or an idea of where they can go for help, or just someone to talk to. Maybe it's just that the people she cares about have turned out to be that sort of defender.

    Maybe she just really liked that now ruined baguette.

    That said, she's not stupid. She is -not- going to be able to take a hit from one of those weird weapons. But then again, she doesn't need to stand up and wave her arms around. She just needs to focus...

    There's a rumble from above, as day rapidly starts to become more overcast, water being pulled out of the area to feed growing clouds, before wind starts to swirl past the convoy, focusing into a tigh spiral...that wraps invisibly around the helicopter, save for the debris being pulled along.

    As helicopters are one of those vehicles that inherently want to crash rather than fly at the best of times, she's now trying to bring it down in a nearby open parking lot, away from the civilians fleeing down side streets.

Miss America has posed:
    She's going fast, but not fast enough that she might risk harming Kate by sheer wind resistance; that alone slows down America more than a little bit, but even so, the world around them quickly becomes a blend of concrete jungle grays as they approach the scene. She can see it, in the distance, and she frowns. Just like she thought.

    Everything hits the fan at the exact wrong moment.

    "Point out a good drop spot to line up your shots, princess! We got work to do!" Shouted against the gush of winds pushing all around them, the Utopian girl will drop Kate off wherever her friend picks out as the ideal spot for a sniping position or otherwise; after all, she'd probably know best. She touches ground only briefly to deposit her friend, offering Kate a passing glance and a simple, "Watch your back, got it?" before she's taking off again with a booming rush of kinetically-spawned winds. She's gotten a good look at the situation. A broadsided convoy, armored cars pouring in from all around. But she knows exactly where she needs to go.

    Which is why there's no hesitation or room for second guessing as America Chavez blitzes her way through the air in a scream of wind and force, looking to shoot -right- past the armored vehicles decorating the streets. She grazes them, in a contact meant both to test as well as to distract, to draw their fire towards her and -away- from the city streets as she pierces the skies. She doesn't go punch happy. Not yet. She needs to know what they're made of, first of all. And secondly -- well, she needs to make sure the area is clear of civilians and bystanders before she starts recklessly destroying things.

    Because this is going to get very messy, very quickly.

Leah has posed:
Leah sips her takeout shake and looks towards the incoming convoy. Gunfire begins and Leah is a pillar of green stone (not literally) among the chaos even though she has the wit to take a half-step back in order to get out of the press of random people running.

Chaos reigns. Burst! Crash! Break! A piece of shrapnel whizzes past Leah fast and close enough to pare off a couple of black strands of hair. She steps forwards as she looks among the fallen and -

Suddenly Leah frowns.

"But he should be there," she says, raising two fingers to her chin. "It was time. Where did he go?"

A man skips past her, wearing a helmet and apparently quite thoroughly unconscious. "Oh!" Leah says and she pivots to follow that person who Yana just sent flying. Helping?

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    "Oh, God." Kate swears as they near the scene. "Too late. Damn. I guess I was right after all." She starts to reach for an arrow and then quickly remembers that she's way off the ground and needs her arms to hold onto America's neck.

    "What to do... hey! Just drop me off on top of the semi that just went over. Maybe if you can get that armored thing out of the road the other semis can make it past and roll on?"

    "You too." Hawkeye says to the other girl. "Stay safe, 'meri." and then she's ready to shoot at the motorcycle bandits.

Black Rose has posed:
    Kenan is able to grab a few weapons from the initial attackers before Bruno Mannhiem is barking in their earbuds, "It's one of the Justice League. Drop the grenades. Distract them!" One of the gunners aims, suddenly for a building and begins to fire a cutting beam of energy-weapon fire across the upper portion of one of the buildings, metal and glass, all sorts of debris begin to tumble down towards the crowd of pedestrians that are busy running away even as several members of the gang move towards the semi trucks for that precious, precious cargo while several bursts of fire towards where they think Kenan will be blow up various cars on the street, or crumble apart buildings.
    The Wasp appears, even as another armed Intergang member goes down, energy crackling around the female's body and sending her into a quick unconscious sleep. Better than remaining in pain.

    "Get outta my head!" Screams the pilot, suddenly, hearing Jean's voice and panicking as he suddenly forgets to fly. The helicopter begins to dip, as the several other Intergang members inside yell profanities at him, "Help! Help!" The man pleads, as well as proclaims when faced with crashing to a burning death. Phoenix has a way of - making her point. Very effectively.
    Even as he says this, the winds and sky begin to whirl around him, around the helicopter, effectively taking it, and several of those dastardly weapons out of the picture as the gusts blow them towards a parking lot. "Jesus!" the main cries, "Don't kill us!" As the winds take over, presuming the Phoenix is responsible. "We'll help! We'll help!"

    America does manage to draw quite a bit of fire, three men from one of the vehicles are each concentrating a blast her way, even while Kate is dropped off, and begins to concentrate on the second motorcycle guy.

    "Here goes nothing," Yana says, noting how America has the concentration of the men in the vehicles. She picks up the motorcycle she up-ended and starts it again. No helmet. She begins to ride, throttling the bike forwards -- whose speed increases suddenly, and seemingly exponentially right towards one of Intergang's armored vehicles. {Taking out one of their vehicles, now. Mr. Edmore is in one of those semi's. He's seventy. Bald. Glasses.} It seems that Yana knew what Jean had been asking and had been cut off.
    In the next moment, Yana is jumping off the motorcycle, tucking and rolling as she hits the pavement, hard. The motorcycle -crashes- into the armored vehicle so hard (much harder than a bike has any reason to) collapsing the inside wall and flipping the vehicle onto it's side, hard, fast. If anyone was left in there? They're in for some pain. Yana is up, almost instantly as if she took no damage. {At least we have others here. Next target?}

Super-Man has posed:
Seeing the rubble falling towards Civilians, Kena declares, "I won't let you die!" Of course, he says it in Mandarin because he still uses that language unless he consciously thinks to translate to English. He runs through the area at high speed, pulling people away from the falling rubble with his slipstream...because if he grabbed them with his hands the shock of acceleration would probably kill them.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
    Seeing her target down for the count and her other charges relatively safe for the moment, Janet takes a moment for an assessment. Civilians running on their own? Check. Other civilians being saved by what appears to be a speedster? Check. The fight being taken back to the aggressors? Check and double check. The wind is certainly up...but it isn't something Jan can't handle. And so, the hovering four-foot woman seems to just....vanish.

    But, not really. The sudden decrease in size looks like Jan just disappeared...but the hovering half-inch speck would say otherwise. A speck that darts off towards a decidedly hostile military vehicle...one not obliterated with a motorcycle. Jan doesn't say anything...but there is a somewhat sardonic thought that crosses her mind, something that a certain telepath may very well pick up on.

    Avenger, Assemble.

    Then, with an audible giggle, Janet searches for an entrance into the vehicle. For...if she does find one, her next thought is even more clear. She is going to light up the inside like the 4th of July...and woe be onto anyone trapped inside when Wasp decides to use her stingers in rapid succession.

Miss America has posed:
    Energy fire screeches past her in bolts of ionizing air as America twists through the space between vehicles. She's familiar with these weapons by now -- and familiar with how much they can hurt, a fact she's reminded of when superpowered plasma slices across her back, burning a hole through her sweater and scorching at the improbably invulnerable flesh beneath in a prolong -=ZRRRRAAATCHHH=- of bubbling energy.

    Her teeth grit taut; but America ignores the pain as she suddenly loops back upon her attackers, converging upon the vehicles -not- being taken care of by Yana (she'd compliment the style with that if she wasn't so busy with her violence) with singleminded purpose. There is a brief moment as she bolts in between them that energy fire might rain between those two vehicles -- but it's relatively short-lived, because America's not usually that subtle.

    Which is probably why her first course of action as soon as she's in range is to try to grab one of those armored vehicles, lift it, and just hammer it into the other one as she blows past with titanic force, to take them both out of the playing field as she makes her way to the capsized semi and destroyed armored vehicle with a mind to follow Kate's advice and clear them out, if she can make it. What America lacks in finesse, she makes up for in hitting things.

    Really, really hard.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    "Bastards!" Hawkeye curses as a building is blasted and debris rains down on innocent bystanders. She starts firing - a flash-bang at the nearest cyclist. She draws and aims, correcting for the movement relative to her and the bike's speed... it should at least knock him off his bike and send the driver to dreamland. If she's really lucky the careening motorcycle will end up taking out another bike or two. Next will be an arrow that expels ropey tentacles of sticky gunk, which should lock up the front wheel of another bike.

Phoenix has posed:
Another piece of Phoenix's psyche sweeps broadly across the congregation of minds as the air surrounding her begins to waver.

{{The 'chopper crew's on the Home Team for the moment,}} she mentally informs the people she can see - and feel - fighting back against Intergang. As she does so, the crew floats from the falling chopper, all the way to the ground-- where they crumple, falling limp.

They did say they'd help, so the least she can do is make sure they don't die, since someone went ahead and made her bluff a reality.

{{Welcome to Channel Phoenix! Your hostess is currently preoccupied with salvaging her Dominate Person--}}

One by one, the crew snap up to their feet and to attention.

{{FIND MR. EDMORE,}} engraves itself on their psyches as they rise, along with an image of the man as Yana knows him. {{PROTECT HIM. PROTECT THE OTHER CIVILIANS.}}

Gloved hands stiffen against throbbing temples as the crew - hopefully - disperses to help out with crowd control. {{Kinetic: Anyone on wheels-- are there anymore vehicles incoming? Can you feel anything?}} Her feet leave the ground as she wheels towards the flaming barricade. {{Everyone else: let's make a plan! I've got some of their guys helping out with crowd control, and I'm de-flaming some of this flaming wreckage before it starts a chain reaction. Let's get the vehicles dealt with before they make this whole thing exponentially worse, and keep our eyes peeled; this is probably only round one!}}

As if snared by invisible chains, Phoenix's arms jerk outwards and her fingers stretch, reaching for the fire-- drawing it from the ruined husk of the armored vehicle in a flaming ribbon that spools through the air until it's time to regather between hands that tremble more and more, the larger the burning sphere grows.

Hopefully, this will make America's job a little easier to bear.

{{Watch your heads!}} she warns before ripping her hands apart from one another and unleashing serpentine fire that begins leaping between the remaining cyclists, igniting each in turn and leaving their bikes frozen in place rather than flying wildly out of control as they burn. Of course, thanks to the fire swirling around her - not to mention the red hair whipping violently about her head - it's rather immediately obvious who's the cause of their woes; it's just a question of whether anyone notices while there are still Intergangsters left to ignite.

Rainmaker has posed:
    Unfortunately Sarah can neither hear the helicopter pilot's panicked pleading, nor does she know he just forgot how to fly. She was sort of assuming he'd try to resist the bird coming down...therefore it comes down a bit harder than intended when everyone...floats out? Okay. Angled as it is, the rotor digs into the asphalt first, before it shatters with a sharp snap, the fuselage hitting hard with a 'crunch' of metal as it wobbles on broken landing gear. Its tail rotor causing it to spin in place until as Sarah pops up to see better, then makes a backhand motion as a powerful gust of wind slam the tail into a nearby building, smashing that rotor too and bringing the aircraft to a creaking halt. It's definitely no longer a going concern

    Sarah jumps a bit at the head in her mind. <<Uh, right...I can to knock them down with more wind...but only if I can sort of see them or know where they are...>>

    The flash of the star spangled girl shooting past (wait, did she recognize her from somewhere?) before she starts using one vehicle as a hammer for the other, and the other heroes drawing fire has the bad guys focused...but as more shots flash towards the buildings above fleeing civilians, she curses and stands quickly, reaching out her hands as the windows swirling around the downed chopper roar out towards the falling debris, swirling round and around as she tries to gather up as much of the falling glass and smaller rubble as she can. <<Or I can stop that falling glass! SHIT!>>

Leah has posed:
Leah kneels next to the fallen man and looks at him intently as explosions proceed. Her skirts pool at her knee. She looks intently at his faceplate -

"No," she says, rising. "Not you."

Leah deserts the man and steps forwards just in time to see a motor vehicle struck with axle-crushing force - "America!" Leah declares with evident cheer, even as she raises her hand and contorts her fingers, emerald light streaking out to form a spiralling disklike shape that protects her from an incoming piece of shrapnel AND probably puts her right square on Intergang's radar.

"Let's talk later!" Leah says, because her previous statement was concealed by shrieking noise. Her head turns round as if finally taking in just what exactly is going on around her, the moment of cheer replaced with a frown of thought. Is she oblivious?

Well, she has separate concerns.

Someone is talking in her head. Leah's lips purse. She then looks up.

She provides a suggestion to Sarah and what seems to be the operational leader. {)]Glass, through fire, into engines.}} Who is that?

Black Rose has posed:
    Kenan's slipstream is -- well, uncomfortable to say the least. The people become so much as leaves in his wake for a few moments, but the effect works, ... at least until another building shot is aimed at the next building, the next patch of rooftop. Apparently the gunner has found an effective way to keep Kenan (and Sarah) quite busy, and away from taking their weapons any longer. As the wind gusts move to carry the further debris it makes the job of keeping Kenan busy a little more difficult, but not impossible.
    The first semi's backend is opened, and men begin to file inside, quickly. With so many heroes, so much going on, there isn't much time. That's why the second semi's rear is also being pulled apart at gunpoint of the driver and passenger also.

    In her tiny view, as the Wasp enters one Intergang's vehicles with four armed men sitting inside, ... waiting. The conversation is low. "Mannhiem is off his rocker," says one. "Maybe. But, we're in too deep now. Desaad's seen our faces. Just remember what Mannhiem says. Wait until things start to get rough, then we bring out the heavy stuff." The second speaker pats the Really Big Gun. A rocket-launcher sized version of the rifles most of the men outside are shooting. "Mannhiem says a shot from this might even kill a Kyrptonian."

    Back on the street, the second motorcyclist was about to drive away to get to his next appointed target -- but Kate's flashbang stops that. As does her 'Good Night Sweet Prince' arrow.

    Scary. Frightening. Holy hell frightening. And, so glad she's on our team. No doubt, the Phoenix would read those thoughts from Yana's mind. Terrifyingly impressive. {{About thirty feet is my limit,}} Kinetic reminds Jean, {{But, no. No more vehciles. Each of the trucks has at least four men in it. Maybe more though. Larger guns, too. At least, think they are. Not 'seen' them before on my sensory fields. Big enough it might take two men to fire it. Balls too? Circular. A series of them in the trucks. Not sure what they are. Pretty sure they aren't balls.}} As a couple of men move out of one of the other vehicles, she is jumping back, and, she pulls a card deck from her pocket, and throws a simple playing card into the forehead of the first goon as he ambles out of the vehicle, the man goes down as the hard literally hits him like a brick to the head.

    As America begins to use the truck as a weapon against itself, there's internal yells, screams, from men inside, and then one of the weapon fires, blindly -- bright blue light tears out of the armored hull, followed by two or three of those 'circles' Kinetic/Yana had described. The result? A deafening, terrible, sonic sound. Think concentrated Canary Cry in a can, and that lasted about thirty seconds. Welcome to Intergang, Part 2.

Miss America has posed:
    She feels someone touching on her mind. Normally it'd be grounds enough for America to get Mad, but the sentiment that carries through those broadcasted thoughts are one she can get behind. So, sh continues on, dealing with that psychic communication with all the steadiness of a practiced veteran as she advances on her objective.

    ((On it,)) thinks the Utopian girl through that psychic link without so much as missing a beat. She watches the flames themselves gather up towards the skies, compelled through the invisible force of thought itself -- and it just steels her mind. Her way cleared through the swift vacuuming of surrounding heat, she lands in front of that wreckage and just -slams- her hands into its bulk with impressively casual force, aiming to push the chunks aside with the screaming protest of metal across concrete to open up the street for the rest of the convoy still remaining.

    ((Hey. Psychic, yeah? Can you grab any info from these idiots?)) America wonders through that link as she pushes, brows furrowed. ((Something's up with--))

    But whatever her warning might be, it's completely lost as her thought process finds itself briefly scrambled by the blare of highly amplified, canned sound, shrieking disruptively through her senses in a way that makes her much less invulnerable sense of hearing scream in pained protest. "FUH" is her eloquent shout, straining through it to try not to buckle to her knees. Oh. She's mad, now.

Super-Man has posed:
Kenan sees the shockwave spreading from the van...well the GOOD news is it will brobably smash the rubble to a size small enough to be less damaging...the bad news is it will brobably do the same thing to anyone close in who is not protected. There is only one possible hope of saving...well most everyone. Kenan turns INTO the explosion and pushes his speed harder than ever before...if he can break the sound barrier the two shockwaves might cancel out...he just hopes he does not make thing worse instead.

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
    <<Hmm...excuse me, but I happen to have eyes on the weapons inside. I can assure you, there are most assuredly bigger guns in here.>> Janet's tone is evident, even through telepathic sending as she is now. She gives a quick description of the firepower of the vehicle she has stowed away on, complete with a mental image of the BFG. <<I haven't let loose in here yet, maybe because they don't know I am in here. But, if this thing can do what they say it can, then we either want to coerce them into giving up or something. Seems they are none too eager to do this raid.>>

    Janet remains sitting pretty within the vehicle. At least until someone else decides to target it. But, for now, she finds herself in a unique position to eavesdrop. And besides...if these four decide to start fighting, the Wasp has the element of surprise on her side. Among other things.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    Hawkeye wears earplugs that cut out sounds that become dangerously loud, mostly so she doesn't deafen herself when she uses a flashbang or the like. This sound is something more, though. She can feel it in her bones, the very vibration in her teeth, in her bones. She puts her hands to her head, her bow still in her hand, hoping to block out the aural presence.

    "Wha'?" she shouts, but of course noone can hear her. She squeezes her eyes shut, which probably makes her a prime target.

Leah has posed:
Shrieking sound erupts from that van and hits Leah right in the face. Her eyes water. Her lips pull back in both a grimace; her eyes narrow. A little bit of blood seeps from her nose as she starts to make mystic passes with her hands.

It takes her several attempts. Green light forms in the air, strange runes which are dissolved several times, until she finally hunches over in order to do whatever-the-devil she is doing and -

Green light streaks towards the vehicle, like a burst can of silly string.

The noise is damped, or at least, muted enough to stop doing murders. Leah stays squatted to spit up blood for the moment, having no further input in this instant in time.

Rainmaker has posed:
    While she's away from the center of the fight, and thus at the edge of the grenade's effect, Sarah does nonetheless get caught in it, covering her ears as she reels a little at the noise...like an airhorn going off right next to her. Leah's spell to muffle them helps, however, and Sarah is back up, then decides to deal with the gunner trying to drop things on people directly. She can't risk a electric bolt...not without her gauntlets to control it, with so many people close to each other.

    But she can reach out to a nearby fire hydrant and PULL at the water.

    There's the sound of metal starting to squeal, then the plug on the side pops off, a stream of water shooting out that curves to slam into the gunner, trying to wash him off his feet and smash him into a nearby truck. She's definitely making herself visible, though she's still staying close to the stone flowerbox she's been sort of sheltering behind.

Phoenix has posed:
{{Okay, so we just need to--}}

A screeching '26 Tesla is among the vehicles caught in the sonic burst. A beat before the shockwave reaches it, all of its windows simultaneously commence raining down upon the pavement and upholstery; afterwards, it puts on a brief gymnastics clinic, tumbling and leaping across the street until it finally lands - roof down - atop a sedan fortunate enough to be merely jostled by the explosion.

Elsewhere along the street, the cyclist-hungry fire comes to rest upon one of the riders, whose bike careens wildly out of control as he panics, thrashes, and jerks the handlebars along with his desperation.

{{OW FUCK OW!}} bursts through the link like a knife before it briefly cuts out, leaving a fleting sense of isolation in its place.

{{-- hhhh---}} ripples through the heroes' minds a moment later as Phoenix picks herself up from a crash landing that left her dazed, but less bruised than it ought to have thanks to a last minute telekinetic flash.

The sonics that swatted her down left her with a cracked rib and swiftly swelling eye, of course, but so it goes.

{{-- okay-- gimme--}}

This may be why her next move is to borrow Jan's eyes. Or, it may be because she wants to get a bead on the guys they need to coerce, but doesn't feel like doing another psychic Google while her ears are bleeding. Either way--

{{-- your eyes...}} she trails off as she begins rifling through one of the gangster's thoughts.

{{Nobody's ever in too deep,}} echoes between his ears. {{There's a ladder-- there's always a ladder. All you have to do is reach for it-- grab it-- pull yourself out-- surrender, do time, change your life...}}

Black Rose has posed:
    There is another sonic boom as Kenan reaches the speed of sound, and slams into the opposing shockwave from the sonic grenade, the 'other' Superman's idea correct, and the shockwave is met with a an opposing force, until it dissapates, the two forces neutralizing the other. The civilians, for the moment, are safe. And -- those in the nearby vicinity to jeporadize and keep Kenan (and others) busy are diminishing exceedingly rapidly. Nobody is even interested in trying getting footage with the amount of firepower going on.

    "Hear that? Sonic grendades going off. Time to open up the bigger can of worms." The backend of the truck that Janet is eavesdropping on is opened, and the largest of the men grabs that 'rocket launcher' sized weapon as the other quickly file out, moving to add their firepower to that already existing. To replace the firepower that's been lost. Of course, they have no clue that the tiny little Wasp is in with them. Luckily for everyone outside, Jean manages to grab the attention of the huge mook with the huge, huge gun. "What?" He asks, darkly, and he pulls at his hair, "That damn witch is in my head! I ain't goin' down!" Terrified much? A lot, probably. "I ain't goin' down you here me?" And he runs out of the car, turning to aim the huge gun directly into the epicenter of all the chaos. Right at the second semi truck.

    Luckily for Hawkeye, the chaos is far too great for anyone to really notice the archer. They've got bigger targets. Like, the woman with the flaming hair. Or, the woman using their vehicles as her personal punching gloves. Or, even, the blue-haired girl knocking people out with freaking playing cards and decimating their trucks with their own motorcycles, even as one of the remaining gunners is literally 'washed out' by the fire hydrant.

    The sonic grenades suddenly silence, after only 8 seconds or so - not nearly as dibiletating as they were intended to be. Which will allow Kinetic, at least, to recover just in time to see the barrel of the energy weapon leveled at her from some distance away. She doesn't have her cards. She dropped them. But there's a piece of rock, pavement, nearby. She grabs it, quick, and whips it as hard as she can. It's lucky she's a good throw. And, it's good that she's earnest in her desire to prove herself to Jean. The rock is whipped, and smashes with enough force to crush the man's clavicle, as it burrows into his flesh and makes his shot go wide, an the side of the building is rent asunder. She didn't kill him, though. Then, {Ms. Grey! Behind you!} Another mook had noticed Jean's fall to earth, and was aiming at her, taking his moment to take her down, even as another of the men was already taking a shot at America.

    Still, the heroes have made significant progress, and it's near the point where the only ones left might be around the semi trucks.
    

Super-Man has posed:
Kenan has kind of overextended himself. The trick worked...once, but if there are more of those things, he is likely to be too wrung out to do it again. Then he sees the side of the building cloven free and starting to lean outwards. He runs over and puts his energy into his hands, holding up the building until everyone is clear of being crushed.

Miss America has posed:
    "... guh... huh... okay. Fuck this. Done with you."

    Yep. America Chavez is very, very angry.

    The debris pushed aside to give the rest of the convoy room to escape if they can, America slowly drags herself back up onto her feet as she feels the heat of flames licking at her back. Dark red blood drools a thick path down her nose and her right ear; she ignores the wet feeling dabbing its unpleasant path down her face as she turns one intense stare the emerging Intergang's way. The silence, despite the rest of the chaos of the battlefield, is palpable.

    The man turns towards her. Squeezes the trigger.

    She's already gone. And in a smudge of star-spangled colors, America Chavez weaves past energy fire to puncture the gangster's personal space and put her anger to good use--

    --punting the man right in the cajones.

    With -just- enough to launch him off his feet and turn him into an impromptu human projectile on a one-way trip in the direction of the man turning his attentions onto Jean.

    And America will just crack her neck, and frown. Frown big. "Okay. Who else wants to see what happens when you're an asshole?"

Wasp (van Dyne) has posed:
    Whelp....that didn't work out too well. <<So much for him dropping the weapon.>> The thought from Jan isn't directed at anyone....just a stray thought that popped up. And...with that stray thought comes an idea. With the sonic silenced (and the truck shielding the majority of the chaotic cacophony for the Intergang crew Jan was spying on) another distinct sound is picked up.

    The buzzing of bees. Actual wasps, to be precise.

    It seems that the insect population was none too happy with the sonic blast and have emerged from what seems to be the storm sewer grates to show their displeasure. Odd how they seem to swoop in on the guy holding the big friggin' gun in his hands...almost as if they were instructed to by an outside force. Also odd is how Janet's thoughts are no longer being broadcast over the telepathic party line. Surely the two can't be related, can it?

    As the wasps begin to swarm the would-be rocketeer, Jan gets physically busy herself. She sacrifices her hiding spot with a couple of lances of light, aimed for kneecaps. It seems a third was in the works, but a quick pistol whip catches the mini superhero by surprise and sends her tumbling into the back of the truck. It was a lucky shot, but it did knock Jan for a loop.

    It's a shame the wasps are already mad. Knocking their ringleader only seems to anger them more.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    Hawkeye puts away her bow and pulls the batons from their sheath on her thigh. Intergang won't get the things in the truck she's tanding on... at least she's going to make them earn it.

    She leaps down from the top of the downed trailer to the ground behind the stricken vehicle and brandishes her weapons. If there's anyone to attack she will.

Phoenix has posed:
In one fluid motion, Phoenix forces herself from one knee to both feet, pivots, and thrusts a palm towards the opportunist Kinetic warns her of. Blue light roars from his barrel in a killing flood--

-- only to halt while still mushrooming forth, a quivering wave of destruction dammed by sheer force of will and flickering pink lights that spark and shoot through the nascent beam.

{{You are, actually,}} she forcefully rebukes her would-be shooter while slowly drawing her quivering arm - and his arms - skywards. {{but not before you pull your sidearm and help me clear the rest of the trucks! I'm looking for someone-- oh! Right, let's get your hands empty....}}

Green eyes flick upwards, locking onto an empty patch of sky. Three arms adjust. Gloved fingers curl--

*THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!*

-- and a column of energy pours forth, finally unleashed.

All the while, the world seems to grow instantly, unbearably hot as burning talons dig into his psyche, hoping to bring him to heel. He feels his fingers spasm open, allow the massive weapon to fall-- which is just as well. He'll need his sidearm, after all-- right? Phoenix needs to find someone-- righ

*THWUMP!* goes Asshole #1 into Asshole #2, taking both down and leaving Phoenix without any extra hands, since the grenades made short work of her first set of patsies.

And leaving her totally free to focus on casting, {{Mr. Edmore! Mr. Edmore, my name is Phoenix, and I'm coming to save you!}} to every civilian mind she can feel in the vicinity, hoping to home in on the man's thoughts-- if they're still present, anyway.

Rainmaker has posed:
    Sarah lets out a huff of air, lowering her eyes as she peers around. From her current position, she's not where she can easily see what's going on in the middle of the convoy...though the cries of pain and the energy blasts shooting up into the sky suggest that the battle is definitely still ongoing. She hasn't seen this Edmore person yet...though luckily by now with Kenan's help the area has been pretty evacuated of civilians. Except herself, of course.

    She sighs to herself. "...welp. Time to get shot..." she mutters, before she summons up the winds up around her as she flies upwards so she can get a bird's eye view of what's actually happening as she soars over towards the semi's, checking to see if the people there are alright or not.

Leah has posed:
Leah walks towards America with the same heedless cavalier attitude she had before. "I think I'm deaf now," she tells America. "It's wonderful."

THOOOOOOOOM!!!

She's less so than she thinks. Leah looks towards that psychic feeling, but when she hears that plea, Leah deliberately stills her mind. Edmore isn't the name she was looking for, so there is no need for interference.

Her eyes follow the arriving insects with evident curiosity.

Black Rose has posed:
    In the midst of all this chaos, there is another large 'boom'. But, this isn't from a sonic grenade. Something entirely new. Something only a few people have seen, once before. And none of them are here now. There's suddenly a gateway opened, a swirling portal, next to the truck that Kinetic/Yana had overturned at first with her motorcycle. A large man, bestial, emerges from it. He reaches into the twisted metal, prying it apart as easily as one might open up a candy wrapper, and pulls from the wreckage a large man, very conscious. And suddenly, very afraid. The man begins to babble. "I captured Superwoman! I've done --,"
    But the large, beastial man only flashes his fangs at Bruno Mannhiem. And then, he pulls the Intergang leader back into the portal he came from -- and the portal itself, disappears.
    Those members remaining from Intergang who saw that are looking in near abject terror as if they had no idea what just happened. Or, maybe they do. On some, instinctual level. There is -true- fear inside their hearts, though. More than even Phoenix gave them with her flaming tendrils.

    Of course, those in the van with the Wasp aren't going to see that. But they have a whole other slew of problems. Wasps stings -suck-. Not only because they sting, but wasps, unlike bees, don't lose their stingers. So they can keep on doing it. And angry wasps suck even more. Especially when the entire hive has been stirred up.
    And Phoenix makes short work of two more of the remaining mooks, showing just why she was Xavier's first student.

    Mr. Edmore's voice, however, comes through on the Phoenix Party Line loud and clear. {{Hello? Hello? Yes! How .. how I talk in this thing? Can you hear me? There are two men inside. I'm in the middle truck. I am delaying them, but can't for much longer. They're having me reprogram the device into an earthquake machine. They intend to destroy Manhattan with it. You have to hurry. The machine was intended to stablize fragile geological areas. Not as a tool of destruction.}}

    The other semi's - there are several wounded, or dead military men laying strewn on the ground from the initial attack. And, there's just a few more of the gang members inside the third if the vehicle has any signs of it.

    Kinetic is already rushing towards that second semi. {{Mr. Edmore! It's me! I brought a friend. We're here to save you.}}

    America is busy doing more Punching For Justice. #winning. And, the remaining Intergang members, the few and far between who haven't quite given up yet aren't pointing their weapons at her any longer, especially with Kate taking out one or two more. Instead, they're aiming at the rushing Russian, Yana/Kinetic, as she bolts to their one and only chance for ever getting out of here.

Miss America has posed:
    I think I'm deaf now, says Leah.

    "WHAT," answers America, obviously just as a show of support. "Hey. You see any--"

    The loud ringing in her ears, though, isn't quite enough to mute the sound of that very, very distinctive boom. It instantly draws those dark brown eyes towards the source. They instantly narrow upon that large man, grabbing up Mannheim like he weighed less than a twig. Fingers curl in towards two dangerous fists.

    She doesn't afford any more words for Leah; she's already peeling off from the green-dressed handmaiden's position in a blistering -=thoom=- of speed.

    America Chavez is fast. Very, very fast. And reckless. Very, very reckless. And as she tears across concrete at speeds that start to very swiftly defy all common sense--

    --it's probably to her great fortune that she's barely a second too slow to make impact with that beast of a man before he disappears with Mannheim through that booming tube.

    Not that she likely sees it that way. "God dammit--" snarls the Utopian girl in frustration as her right fist hooks through open air instead of into the vast unknown of the portal beyond. Sneakers planting into street so hard she churns concrete like it was hot butter, smoke rises from the rubber soles of her footwear as she pivots on her heel, turning an irritated stare the rest of the lingering Intergang's way. Her lips twitch downward. Her fingers squeeze against her palm.

    And many of those remaining men get treated to a storm of concrete and rubble as America BOOMS through them, venting her frustration with the application of one (1) fist per Corrupt Asshole Face as she blows through.

Phoenix has posed:
Middle truck.

Phoenix doubles over after Edmore's response, hands on her knees as she gasps for air and a cosmic BOOM threatens to shatter her concentration. Middle truck. Stop breathing you need to breathe stop breathing so much it's horrible. Middle truck. Brain throbbing. Face throbbing. Middle truck. Arms feel like lead. Middle truck--

The air within the middle truck rapidly warms as green eyes go glassy and their owner stares through Edmore's. Is the machine volatile? Could it explode? The questions roll off of the telepath's back as she deliberately draws her spine straight. The ends of her hair are consumed with fire as it whips wildly about her head; the rest of her is unmoving once she's upright.

The world goes wobbly around Phoenix and within the middle truck, Edmore finds himself toe to toe with two screaming, thrashing bonfires-- and ensconed within a pink field that keeps burning limbs at bay.

After a few seconds, the doors burst from their hinges and don't stop until they're stuck in a wall.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    Kate whirls around as another boom happens and something comes out of the tube. "The hell?" she asks herself. "Wait!" and she drops her batons and unfolds her bow again. She draws and fires at the bestial man, but it's too late... the arrow just flies though where the portal was a moment before. "Damn."

    America seems to have ended up there too and luckily she didn't hit her friend, though the arrow likely flies past her ear. She starts to jog towards the colorful girl. "Hey! 'mer..." but the latina is already gone, doing what she does best... punching.

Leah has posed:
Leah's expression brightens - or at least illuminates - when she glimpses the sudden manifestation of a portal. She claps her hands twice, as if in delight, and walks towards it -

Which is complicated by several factors.

Mostly these factors are explosions, though those are dying down. There is also the prospect that the portal is closing - this does not deter Leah, but it does mildly frustrate her - and more telling is when weapons are pointed towards Yana.

Leah sees them, and Yana doesn't. She raises both hands in a sacred gesticulation which in this context does not represent Slayer, but rather a pair of occult shields, emerald-green and translucent in front of her. Leah twists her hands so they overlap a little, since she isn't sure of the power of those guns.

But her eyes are on the site of that portal.

(She also swallows some blood, but that is, to Leah, kind of an upside.)

Rainmaker has posed:
    As the other heroines converge on the truck in question, Sarah uses her elevated position to pick off the remaining baddies who haven't already dropped their weapons and started running. There's a faint *CRACK* of a lightning arc as she fires it into the puddle of water under several from the hydrant she burst earlier, causing them to twitch and jerk and go down, crumpling, before she sets herself down, kicking away the weapons from twitching fingers while they're all disabled. "You probably want to stay down now...." she reminds them.

Black Rose has posed:
    America the Beautiful? Or, America the Punching Face of Justice? Probably the latter. At least, right now. And to some, America the Terrible. As she's knocking out several of the few remaining members who had been gathering up for on last effort to make a break for it. She does a pretty good job of busting them up.

    Inside the middle truck - as it begins to become engulfed in flames, melting, sticking -- and the smell of burning flesh as the two men scream in agony until they can scream no longer? That's probably something that Mr. Edmore is never going to forget. At least, unless his memory gets wiped. Thankfully, he's standing right over that machine, so most, perhaps all of the machine is not melted, or destroyed. But you can bet your life he's not moving.

    For her part, Kinetic pulls up short to the semi as she can hear, and see the flames -- but oddly? Not feel the heat thanks to a little shielding spell she's unaware of that comes off that middle truck, looking up to the fire-encased Phoenix -- she swallows visibly, and once again considers the Phoenix with a new admiration - and, a healthy dose of awareness of just how damn powerful a mutant can really be. She's not sure she wants to approach. {{I think we got them all, Ms. Grey. I only sense one moving body. Or, well. One body that's not laying on the floor like they're dead. He's crouching.}} Or, 'Please don't burn my friend alive, please?'

    The Wasp had been knocked for a loop with the pistol whip to her, but the wasps have done their work, and she sends them back to whence they came, while she simply zips herself back on her way to the fashion show. Can't be late, after all, right? And, everything here seems in order.

    Lightning cracks down, and the men, trying to flee by distracting everyone with firing on Yana are sent back to the ground, groaning in pain, and agony. The fight - and the flight out of all of them has been neutralized. They have all realized now, some sooner than others, that just having better weapons does not a super-gang make. They are not just defeated physically - they're defeated mentally as well. That's the real victory.

    Sirens are already on their way, of course. SWAT teams. Police. Ambulances. Fire trucks. There will be a lot of emergency services used tonight. But, thanks to the efforts of the gathered hereos, new, and experienced, only a few men on both sides died. No doubt those who perished in the initial onslaught will be properly honored.

Rainmaker has posed:
    Sarah sighs, then frowns a bit, hands on her hips, as she turns her head, hearing the oncoming sirens. <<I can't be here when they police get here. There will be too many questions.>> And from her mental voice, she's a bit nervous about that....not so much the police, but being identified. <<Everyone okay? If anyone's hurt...I can get you to the nearest hospital quickly....>>

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    Kate collects a couple of the smaller Intergang weapons and puts them away in her quiver. Her bow too is folded again and slipped in there. She collects her batons and then looks around to see what else needs to be done.

    Any of the criminals still moving get their wrists zip-tied behing their backs. She spies Leah at the point the portal was at and she trots over there.

    "Hey. I'm Hawkeye. Have you seen a lady in a sweater flying around here somewhere?"

Miss America has posed:
    The last of the gangsters falls just in a crumple of unconsciousness and broken bones behind America Chavez as she slowly straightens herself out. Dust and rock swirls behind her in settling contrails of dying winds kicked up by the force of her movements. But her attention isn't on those fallen men; it is even only briefly on the others to make sure everyone else is relatively in one piece, a frown settling on her lips. But eventually -- inevitably -- her attention falls back towards where that portal once was.

    More than anything else, America Chavez knows dimensional transportation when she sees it. The fluctuations, the way it snares on the fabric of space -- she recognizes it the way only a veteran can. And it just makes her frown, a deep, pensive frown.

    "... Yep. This is a crapsack," she summarizes so very loquaciously before she swoops down to pick up one of those weapons. She suppresses a wince as she rises again, eyeing the thing... before she just shoulders it and starts making her way back to Kate. Just dragging the weapon along with her without a care in the world about how it's technically evidence, or technically theft. Technicalities are for suckers.

    "We better clear out. Don't feel like talking to police," she suggests as she gets closer, brown eyes sweeping back towards the direction of Leah, and then Jean and Yana, and Sarah. She doesn't really answer that check up, but she opens her thoughts up nonetheless if only to ask, ((Any idea what they were after?))

Phoenix has posed:
Wreathed in flames, the melting remnants of a hand trembles towards Edmore for several seconds before collapsing. Before it hits the floor, a flame leaps from one of its fingers, shaping itself into a little burning raptor which soars painlessly through one of the old man's eyes.

There, burning wings stretch wide, scouring away the sight, the smell, the sound-- every horrible bit of those last few seconds, leaving nothing but warmth and darkness, a few vague, but most assuredly soothing moments to cap off a harrowing day.

And, perhaps, an enhanced fear of fire.

{{He's alone,}} Phoenix evenly agrees, {{and safe. The door is open; it's up to him to use it.}}

Her head then rolls towards the man who tried to shoot her, and the rest of her gradually pivots until she's locked onto him.

Burning wings unfurl in his mind, too-- only, rather than wiping bits of his memory, they brand it with a geas: ENTER CUSTODY QUIETLY. REMEMBER PHOENIX. SPEAK TO PHOENIX.

Rainmaker offers aid; America asks after motives. Phoenix ignores both until her quarry has been duly marked, at which point she replies, {{They were children kicking sand and pretending at godhood. There was a machine, a seismic--}}

The world spins around Phoenix as her knees begin to wobble nearly as much as the air--

{{maaaaaaa--}}

-- and an instant after the link dies, she hits the pavement, unconscious.

Leah has posed:
The shields of Leah crack but do not quite yield in that last attempt to open fire. Leah lets out a deep breath after peace reigns, her eyes closing.

An offer of medical aid comes by. Leah thinks back: {{I'm fine, really.}} She turns her head and spits out more blood. {{I will have a lie down later.}}

She meets America's eyes for a moment, but then turns her attention to what she'd been peering at all along.

"I can tell you it is a portal," Leah says, "or was, but to places I do not know. It was no work of Asgard or Niflheim, unless I have been poorly informed, and I have not." She then reaches into a dress pocket for a folded cloth to press to her nose, tilting it back as she turns her eyes to the side and sees Jean Grey - the PHOENIX - fall from the sky onto concrete.

"I think she could use a hand," she offers 'helpfully'.

Black Rose has posed:
    "Ms. Grey!" Yana runs over to her teacher, the principal of the school, and the woman who gave her a chance to be something more, and kneels down beside her, feeling for a pulse. Relieved when she finds one, asking Sarah, "Can you help me get her to that car over there?" She points, at the '26 Tesla that Jean rode in on. "I can take her from there." Yana's 'strength' is only applicable when in motion. Punching things. Picking up? Not so much. And deadweight is harder to lift. And, she doesn't want to run the risk if Jean suffered injury she's not aware of to injure further.
    "I'll get her to someplace that'll help." Xavier's. Somehow, she's certain Jean wouldn't want to wake up in a hospital with all that raw pain going on in people's heads. She might not know much about telepaths, but, she's guessing somewhere quiet, familiar, is best.
    As Mr. Edmore steps out, she smiles up at him, sharply. "Old man, you're safe. Looks like some of your lessons came through, afterall. I'll call you later. I have to get Ms. Grey help."
    The old man starts to open his mouth, then, smiles back at Yana, though, he looks pained at seeing all the wreckage. "Go," he tells her, as if understanding something unspoken.
    She looks back, then, to Leah. "If you could take her arms, and the other girl take her legs, I'll get her waist. We can put her in the back. Thanks." She looks very appreciative.

Rainmaker has posed:
    "Sarah." the girl in question says, before moving to do so. "Sure...are you sure that thing will run though? There's glass everywhere with the windows busted like that...." She frowns. "I could just fly you direct too with her, if you can point me where you want to go?"

Leah has posed:
"Understood," Leah tells Yana, accepting that she's been dragooned into this service. She aids in hoisting around Jean without difficulty, or indeed much effort.

Something about her face bothers Leah, but she'll worry about it later.

Black Rose has posed:
    With America helping to dislodge the Tesla from it's upturned position on top of another car, and Sarah and Leah helping Yana clear off the seats of the broken glass, Yana does manage to start the car. It might pull a little to the right, but, it's an easier ride than hauling Jean back to her Camaro, or flying her back to Xavier's without knowing what the injury is.
    "You guys were awesome, by the way. Thank you. That - meant a lot to me. He's a good friend." The old man, that is. She waves, and then hits the pedal to drive off before the police get there. Questions. First aid. Yana wants none of it, right now.