2309/Rock Out / Punch Somebody

Rock Out / Punch Somebody
Date of Scene:	03 September 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Grace Choi, Miss America, Hawkeye (Bishop)

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Grace Choi has posed:
    It's 8pm, and Grace Choi is on her way to work. At least, she was on her way to work. It's hard to drive, when there's a traffic jam going on. And, when there's people running from their vehicles. And, when a chunk of cement and asphalt comes hurtling in the air and smashes into the side of a building. "I swear to God," mutters Grace, growling, "If one more asshat makes me late for work." But, asshat, apparently, already is. And that's why Grace is stepping off her bike, and (wo)manhandling it easily over her head, and up onto the curb to tuck it into an inlet first. Priorities, afterall. That motorcycle cost her a years worth of work. And have you ever tried to argue with an insurance company?
    Then, Grace is running up the street, where several stone creatures, or, perhaps more aptly, cement and asphalt creatures are wreaking havoc at an intersection, moving towards the LexCorp building. Several cars are ruined, wrecked well beyond repair. A few minor injuries, but most of the people have been smart enough to get out of the way, so far. Most.
    There is, as always will be, the idiots, trying to get the next YouTube video hit.

Miss America has posed:
    Since the Intergang attack in Gotham, America Chavez has been hard at work. Her ability to investigate is fairly limited for a number of reasons, not the least of which all the hoop jumping she simply doesn't have the patience for, and so she's just been doing what comes more naturally to her: looking for something to punch until answers fall out of it.

    It's how real detective work goes.

    Sticking to the Tristate Area, America's been on patrol through the major hub of cities to keep an eye peeled for anything, or anyone, that might stand out. In some ways, it's even more tedious work than investigation, but, well -- it's what she knows best. Currently, though? Currently she's just taking a break out over in Metropolis' business district, planted firmly on the roof of a building a block or two away from LexCorp Tower, a Big Belly Burger bag in hand as she chews on a handful of onion rings. She's pretty content, for right now, with her junk food, typing out a text to a certain, arrow-wielding girl...

    ... until she hears screams. And then sees a concrete slab go flying right towards her to smash into the side of the building she's in, with -just- enough force to rattle her grasp. Onion rings and burger bag fall from her hands, careening down to the city below. Brown eyes shut in a slow blink. A frown twitches at her lips.

    "Yeah... no."

    And with that, and a quickly typed, 'Hey brb gotta kick some stupid ass' sent off to Kate Bishop, America takes off, launching off the building rooftop, soaring high into the air... and then redirecting her momentum to start -flinging- herself down to earth like she were the angriest Latina meteor in the world, with every intention of crashing into one of those creatures bodily with crushing force.

    No one messes with her onion rings.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    *Where ARE you??!!* is Kate's texted response.

    *Oh. There you are.*

*I seeeeeee yoooouuuu* but then 'meri won't have time to check texts, she's got punchin' to do.

    Unfortunately, Kate wasn't out on patrol. so she has a limited amount of kit on her. Still, she DOES have a folding bow in her packpack, and her sunglasses. That's all she really needs, right?

    She's on the street, not so far from where the monsters are marching. She breaks into a run, trying to intercept. She already has an arrow knocked.

Grace Choi has posed:
    Grace is running, much like a freight train. She doesn't just grab one of the asphalt monsters. No. She charges, and she launches herself into one of the creatures, spearing it into the midsection, and taking it to the ground, and then she slams her fist into the 'face' (if one can call it that) of one of the marching, chaos-causing constructs. Cement and asphalt go shattering in all directions and then the body of the construct breaks down as if it never were, returning to it's most basic components.

    Of course, that's only a drop in the sea. As there's a good twenty, or thirty of these creatures, and presently at least as one can see from the streets, there is nothing else.

    Another one of the creatures is crumbled beneath America's powerful plummet as she pummels the creature into puffs of asphalt and cement.

    Grace stands up, looks around her, and almost seems to grin towards America. She gives the patriotic-dressed girl a 'thumbs-up', "Whoever smashes the most," she calls to America, "Is buying."
    And, without waiting for an agreement from America, or details on what is being bought, Grace is turning into the nearest creature whose hand is now 'sucking' cement from the street to form a spiked ball at the end of it's arm, which is swung towards the half-Amazon. Grace gets hit, hard, and skids against the cement of the street, slamming into the side of a building. A streetlamp is ripped out of it's base, and Grace uses it in turn as a baseball bat at first, to knock the creature in return, the streetlamp bends, and the creature cracks, staggering back, before Grace whacks it again, smashing it on the second time to bits.

Miss America has posed:
    Cement powders into an explosive veil of dust around America as she makes her irritated landfall. Pavement chunks under her feet in an unfortunate side effect of of accelerating faster than most fighter jets, furrows of earth dragged up in jagged chunks of street as she pushes herself back up onto her feet. She's still frowning as rubble rains around her; she's also in the middle of cracking her knuckles. None of these things are good signs.

    She's just about to show those mindless creatures exactly why that is when she catches someone familiar from the peripheries of her vision. Brown eyes blink, and America's head cocks towards her left just in time to see Kate, arrow knocked and ready to be unleashed. Brows lift, muted surprise on the red-white-and-blue adventurer's features as she mouths a brief, 'you're here??' for the approaching girl. She looks around her -- and then jerks her head to the left, as if in a silent way to indicate which direction she's headed for Kate's sake.

    It's only then that she hears Grace, and sees that thumbs up. She doesn't look the half-Amazon's way -- but it doesn't stop the smirk that grows at her lips as she rolls her shoulders, one after the other.

    "Bring it."

    And with a lunge to her left, America starts to move upon those creatures building up their asphalt weaponry from the very city itself, one fist cocked backwards to piston it straight into the head of the closest of those strange constructs she can find, before she has every intention of gripping the body and -launching- it at a small group of more of those creatures like a cannonball -- both to just pummel them, and turn their attentions towards her to give Kate the time she needs to line up her shots.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    Kate fires her arrow - it's a flashbang. It might not deafen or blind any of the creatures, but shot in the face it might crumble one.

    She reaches in her pack. "Three arrows left." and the one she draws is a broadhead. She looks up... "Hmm." There's a power line just over where some of the creatures are about to walk under and so she fires again, intending to cut through the cable and loose a live line onto a row of the things.

    Hands free for a moment? She gives America a little wave.

Grace Choi has posed:
    The thrown asphalt creature from America's fury collides into it's comrades, and four of them are reduced to absolute rubble. Grace: 2, America: 6. Funnily enough? Grace -is- keeping score. At least, as much as she can.

    As Kate severs the power line with her arrow and produces a flashbang - which, curiously, does -not- seem to affect the creatures -in the least- (but that, in itself is suggestive either the creatures cannot see, or they're guided by another purpose, person, or thing).
    Behind America, one creature turns, and begins to absorb the four fallen comrades-in-concrete, growing larger. Thicker. And increasing size, and power, by four times.

    "Still only counts as one," calls Grace Choi, to America, as she watches this. However, that quip is followed up by, "I -hate- magic bullshit," as she wrenches an arm off one of the concrete monsters, slams it into a head of another to send it to dust before turning, and decapitating the original arm's owner. These, plus the two Grace herself had killed begin to be assimilated by another creature as well. "Damn. Magic. -Bullshit-." She stresses.
    Grace: 4, America: 6

    The larger cement creature turns on America, and forms one hand into a spiked ball, the other hand forms a huge shield, and it swings, hard, towards the hot-tempered latina even as Kate's severed line gives the creatures pause for a moment as if they were considering - or whomever was controlling them was considering - if they could cross it safely.

Miss America has posed:
    The constructs crumble, and America offers a return wave to Kate as she pits her focus on the remaining creatures. And then... feed each other? America watches with growing incredulity as one of those concrete creatures grows larger and stronger off the backs of its fallen brethren, her brows twisting up into a consternated knot. That shadow overcasts her.

    "Damn magic bullshit," she echoes Grace's sentiment flatly.

    And CRACK goes the ball of concrete, hammering America into the earth seconds before she can maneuver out of the way. Pain shoots through her as the ground craters beneath her into an ugly crunch of concave concrete splinters -- but frankly, if she were anyone else, she'd probably be a fine paste right now, so she'll take what she can get. Flattened into the pavement, rubble rains down on her as that spiked ball begins to lift again... but before it can withdraw completely, the star-spangled warrior woman is already lurching forward with an irritated grunt, fighting past the pain in an effort to grab onto that lifting weapon and hopefully take advantage of the creature being off-center to just -yank- it forward violently through the air... to send it smashing into that severed power line Kate laid out.

    There. Now they can see how safe it is to cross. She's helping.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    "This is hopeless..." Kate mutters to herself. She seems to do that a lot - talk to herself. She scans the area for something... anything!

    Then she sees it. A wrecking ball on a crane. Lucky a building was being knocked down along this very path.

    Kate sprints over to the cab of the thing and climbs in, staring up the engine. "Let's see..." she fiddles with controls and the ball swings one way... the wrong way. "Other way, Katiemonster!" she shouts at herself and jerks the controls another direction. The ball swings, one of the creatures will get a faceful of balls - a heavy steel ball.

Grace Choi has posed:
    As America literally tosses the much tougher, much stronger larger assimilated creature into the power lines which -- well, it has an odd effect. It doesn't seem to hurt the creatures, but what it does? What it does is it causes the creature to go 'frozen', for a long moment, before it just breaks away, into large and small crumbly bits, dusted clouds, and nothingness. Curiously enough too? It doesn't resurge into a new creature. At least, not yet.

    "We got competition," calls Grace, loudly, to America as someone operating a wrecking ball whom she's not yet noticed crushes one of the cement monstrosities. Then, one - two of the creatures jumps onto the wrecking ball chain, and they start using their weight to swing the ball -towards- that particular Katiemonster.
    Grace moves to help, but the huge monster that had formed slams his hand into her, crushing her into the ground.
    And you have to give the creature credit. It tries to pin Grace down, there. It really does. But, there's a moment where they hand begins to quiver. Then, it begins to crack. And, a moment again later, the arm shatters.
    Then Grace is jumping up from the ground, and giving the massed cement construct a shoulder-uppercut to its massive face, and as she lands, catching the crumpling body to throw it directly towards three more oncoming constructs, smashing them into dust - perhaps even stealing that from America's playbook.
    Hopefully whoever is on the wrecking ball can hold on a few more moments?
    Grace: 8, America: 7, Kate: 1

    Meanwhile, the downed power line, now is creating a rather large stumbling block - almost as if the constructs were come to a sudden realization that live wires were not their friends and they couldn't hold themselves together in the middle of it.

Miss America has posed:
    "... Huh." Curiosity breathes out from America Chavez's lips in that curt exhale as she looks down on the crumbled form of what was once a titan of a construct. Brown eyes look down towards that sparking live wire, and a pensive frown crosses her lips.

    Whatever she's thinking, it doesn't last terribly long until her attention is torn away from the wire to where Grace is looking. America's brows lift upward just a bit, before acknowledgment suffuses those stoic features. "Sure as hell do," she declares, hands clenching into fists in preparation. She eyes the creatures, clamoring onto the ball. But she doesn't look too worried. Not yet.

    "She'll give you a run for your money, that's for damn sure."

    And with that claim of confidence in Kate delivered, America turns her attention back towards the creatures playing footsie with the power line that has become their barrier. She frowns, looks back towards the creatures climbing Kate's wrecking ball, gauges her options. And then?

    "PRINCESS!" shouts Chavez, and then jerks her thumb to the power line Kate had snapped off -- hoping she'll be able to see just what that electricity is doing to the concrete creatures. And in the next second, Chavez is off, launching into the air, towards one of the power line towers.

    With every intention of grabbing it, ripping it free, and sending it ramming down towards that cluster of constructs, high voltage conductors first. She's probably causing a bit of undue property damage. But -- no one ever accused America of not doing whatever the hell she wants when she thinks it's the best way to do it.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    "Ahh!" Kate shouts in alarm as a brace of the creatures tries to turn the proverbial tables on her. America shouts at her and indicates the downed line and she thinks again, just a moment. She only has a moment. She cranks the controls and the crane's exhaust grunts to life once more. There's just enough time for her to get the crane's metal arm to touch an overhead line... hopefully that will electrify the structure enough that it will shock and awe her attackers... or maybe it'll just electrocute her. Either way it should be spectacular.

Grace Choi has posed:
    Shock & Awe works pretty well, if not causing yet even more colleteral damage as the wrecking ball tears through yet more live wires and fries the two climbing constructs and bursts them into dust.
    Then, America's throwing electrical power line towers into the mess of things, even as Grace is punching the last two constructs.

    Final Tally? Grace: 10, America: 13, Kate: 3.

    Grace spins slowly, and sees there are, at least for the moment, there no further constructs assailing them. She turns around, and around, a few times, just to make sure before dusting her hands off, and slowly walking over to America. The wreckage they've all been a part of. "Damn. Glad to have someone useful in a fight, around." She exhales, "Shit's going to make me late for work. Bastards."
    She shoves a hand towards America, however. "Grace Choi. Looks like drinks are on me."
    A glance, over to the wrecking ball. "Whose your friend?"

    In the distance, a very childlike, petulant voice yells across the distance, "Jerk-faces!" And then, there's a dimensional portal opening atop one of the overtowering buildings nearby, and a teenager? child? Figure jumping into it. The portal disappears behind him. No doubt, the force behind the constructs. And he didn't get his way today.

Miss America has posed:
    Electricity sparks and sputters all around America in chaotic, dancing forks of discharges. Even from her position, it still tingles at her skin, hair raising on end as she watches the remains of her targets crumble into so much concrete rubble. In the end, it looks like someone was just running around whacking the street with a wrecking ball. Which isn't -too- far from the truth, really.

    Speaking of which, it's a subtle thing, the way America's gaze flits briefly in the direction of the crane to make sure Kate's alright; the fact that the archer's handled herself just fine and -didn't- shock herself to death seems to be just about expected by America -- but she still manages a ghost of a smile for it regardless.

    It's only then that her attention turns to the approaching Grace. Those dark eyes look at the taller woman with a critical if inscrutable air, only dropping down when that hand is offered. Only a second passes before America clasps it in her strong grip, uttering a, "Could say the same to you," to the Amazon's first comment. "America," she greets a moment later; her brows lift. "Best prep yourself, chica. I'm not gonna make it cheap." Forewarned is forearmed, right?

    Releasing Grace's hand on that wry note, America's attention returns to the crane once more. She lifts a hand to indicate to Kate that everything's clear, even as Grace raises that question. "She's solid," she says, which is a bit of a non-answer, but then -- at least she sounds sincere about it. Introductions, she decides, are probably best left to Kate when she gets there.

    Not the least of which because that yell captures her attention. Brown eyes snap towards its direction; the sound -- the feel -- of a hole opening up in space is unmistakable to someone like America. She frowns. "Bobo," she declares, brows furrowed in mild thought as her gaze flits back towards the crumbled constructs.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    Kate trties to untangle the crane and the wrecking ball from the high-voltage lines, at least so she won't die when she tries to get out of the cab. SUccess!

    Kate shuts off the engine and climbs down. "Hey!" she calls, jogging up to America and Grace. "Are you alright?" she asks Chavez, a little breathless from all the excitement. "Let's see. Spin." and she twirls a finger in the air, especting the other woman to cooperate. When she's satisfied she turns her gaze to grace. "Hi. Are _you_ alright?"

Grace Choi has posed:
    Grace smirks at Kate, folding her arms, and looking down at both women from her full stature, "Just fine. Take a lot more than that to put me down," she asures Kate, good naturedly. She seems, more or less, to be in pretty good spirits. "Nice moves, by the way. Some clever shit you pulled." Kate gets a thumbs up.
    She looks back to America then, "Bobo?" She asks, frowning some, uncertain as to what, exactly, that means. "What - or who - is Bobo?"

Miss America has posed:
    Kate makes that demand, twirls a finger, looks expectant. America just stands and stares, blankly. Her eyebrows lift barely a fraction of an inch, her entire expression reeking of a simple, 'Yeah, that's not gonna happen.'

    "I'm fine," she ultimately declares, and her main compromise to Kate's demand is to lift up her arms and show off the front of her for Kate's inspection. She looks scuffed up, holes punctured through clothes here and there courtesy of angry ball-spikes, but more or less in one piece. So there's that. "We good?"

    Not that it stops her, at least, from peering at Kate for a long, quiet moment herself, looking the archer over as if to make sure -she- hasn't been injured. Apparently satisfied, her attention shifts Grace's way, jerking a thumb Kate's way. "Kate, Grace. Grace, Kate," she finally says by way of introduction. "Her head's in the right place. Kicks a lotta ass for a girl with a bow and arrow."

    Who or what is Bobo, though? America's answer is simple:

    "A dumb shit."

    Eloquent as ever.

    "Whatever was controlling 'em, they're gone now." Her head rolls, tilting as if to gesture away from the main street. "We oughta bounce."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
    Kate sticks her tongue out at America. She sticks out a finger, looking like she's going to poke at one of the holes in the patrotic co ors, but she thinks better of it... she might not get the finger back again.

    A bit of a pout for 'meri. "I don't just have a bow. I have a sword and some shocky escrima sticks too, and... eh, whatever."

    "Yeah, hey." she agrees, smiling at Grace. "Kate, yeah. Good work, by the way."

    There are sirens. "Yeah, we'd better go."