2536/To Thwart A Penguin

To Thwart A Penguin
Date of Scene:	21 September 2017
Location:	Fort Clinton, Burnley
Synopsis:	The Penguin orchestrated a crime that crossed the wouldbe jurisdiction of the Avengers, X-Men, and the Sorcerer Supreme. He draws quite a team of heroes to thwart him, yet somehow, cunningly wins the day unbeknownst to all.
Thanks to:	Penguin for running an awesome scene
Cast of Characters:	Penguin, Doctor Strange, Rogue, Captain Marvel (Danvers)

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Penguin has posed:
In the mountains of Austria, a secret society has formed to study dark magic, in an effort to counter those with magical inclinations that seek to interfere with the games of commerce and wanton debauchery that a circle of Mafiaso play with the people of Europe. In these high mountains, the German-speaking Austrians have a long relationship with the mystical, both as friends and enemies, the Catholic Church having once hunted witches, and before that, the tribes of Germania having resisted Rome with their own particular trickeries, fighting Roman centurions and the priestly magics of Latin imperialism with spells from east of the Urals. But magic has long since disappeared from the worlds of most men, for over a thousand years, and is in the hands of a few, the efforts of great wizards having quashed the witches and hedge mages that sought to ply their trade for games of lust and empire in the foothills of Europe.

But from these days of battling the magicians of the Dark Ages, there exists a chart of the leylines, cartographed by a mad Turkish holyman who lived in the Balkans during the battle with Vlad Draculea. If one possessed this set of scrolls and parchments, one could navigate the world of sorcery as the Turkish empire once did to make war on Dracula himself, the line drawn between Wallachia and Turkish Greece only held through Dracula's use of psychological warfare of the mundane variety. And in a vault, deep inside a Gotham City repository protected by a society of neo-pagan witches, this astral cartogram sits, sealed inside a metal sarcophagus. It has come to Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, the Penguin, to recover this artifice of witch hunting, and in this respect, he has hired Les Voleurs de Diable, the Thieves of the Devil. A quintet of five Mutant thieves from France, this group is an elite force of thieves specializing in dangerous jobs, using their abilities to steal the greatest treasures of the world.

The building is a simple white building, with few windows and three levels up, two levels down. It's officially marked as a comparative theology campus building, a corporate facade linking it to Gotham University's overseas study program. A door on the roof opens from the inside, where three men and a woman wait. All of them are dressed in black fatigues with black masks, of varying builds. The silent alarm hasn't tripped, but a magical seal has. The five thieves enter the building, descending inside.

The building is a maze, but luckily, Penguin has provided blueprints.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Appearing outside of the Gotham University facility, a duo of super powered individuals that have been charged with Earth's protection have appeared with a purple cylindrical shape folding down out of thin air and fading away into the nothingness of the void leaving behind Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel, and the drifter Rogue has followed her teacher as he thinks this could be a learning experience for the young mutant.

    "I don't know what caused the alarm to be triggered, but one of the mystical seals left on this building was activated by something. We don't know what, but inside this building is an artifact beyond powerful. It's dangerous, too dangerous to be left in the hands of one person. I will go into the details later, right now I need you two to discover the intruder and be sure to not engage unless you're certain you'll be okay. The artifact isn't worth losing your lives over." Stephen explains as he steps up and nods to the two women.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue was out of school today, so she'd been bothering Stephen into taking her with him on whatever thing he was up to when she'd bumped into him at the Sanctum. Since he'd agreed, she'd been excited to get underway!

She got quite unexcited when she heard and saw that Carol was involved... Not that she disliked Carol... it was just still AWKWARD... after what happened a couple years ago... even if they'd reconciled it a few months back. Still! Awkward!

Rogue looked at this new building when they arrived and she put her hands into her hoodie's side pockets. One came out tho to stroke her hair out of her face and she looked at her companions. "Looks like a borin' old buildin' t'me." She voiced her intelligent summation of their situation.

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"I've got to tell you, Strange, I've done all kinds of modes of transportation, yours is still the most disorienting..." Carol quips to Dr. Strange as the trio appear outside of Gotham Univeristy. "Then it's bad news I've got intel stating Les Voleurs de Diable have taken a mission in this area," Carol adds as Strange sheds more light on the situation. "I'm sure we'll be fine, besides, I'm not lucky enough to die." Carol winks with a level of arrogance at Strange.

Looking over at Rogue, Carol floats a little above ground and asks, "shall we go inside? Eager to see you in action on the right side, last glimpse I got was good, but practice makes perfect." Yeah, it's awkward, they both know it, and Carol is doing her best to brush over the fact.

Penguin has posed:
The Thieves of the Devil are known to international authorities.

Descartes: Trained as a master carpenter, recovering alcoholic. Ability to channel force into hands or feet to use them as superhard pressure surfaces with strikes.

Voltaire: Failed lawyer, brief stint in prison for selling cannabis. Instantaneous mnenomic memory of motion and spatial logic, allowing him to navigate areas flawlessly based on visual confirmation.

Montesquieu: Former member of an influential fraternity in Montreal, went renegade after stealing from a local Mafia chapter. Dexterity and agility levels are boosted by a syncretic reaction with the foe of his choice, based on focus.

Weil: Social activist that was responsible for the murder of an informant, ability to regenerate based on fear of her friends nearby.

Sartre: Trained actor that wanted to make money as a thief, ability to merge into and emerge from shadows.

The fives thieves silently descend a stairway to the second floor, Voltaire using his memory of the blueprints to lead the way. As they came to a locked vault door on the second floor leading to the ground floor, Descartes slams his fist into one side of the door, smashing through the concrete, before smashing into the other side. He then peels the vault door open, Sartre disappearing and reappearing on the other side through shadow, to push the door from the other side.

Outside the building, the smashes can be heard and felt, combined with the whining concrete and rebar, before there's a hollow metal thump of the vault collapsing.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I think we should make haste ladies." The doctor says as he moves towards the door, his cloak billowing behind him as he steps briskly towards the main door. Stephen stands next to the locked door and eyes the keyhole as he ponders how to work his into the device. He doesn't want to set off the mystic alarms that other wizards set up many years ago.

    "I... leave it up to you two to find us means of ingress." Plus he's certainly not as capable a physical combatant as either woman who oddly enough share the same powers. Mostly. It's confusing.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue would smile up at Carol and nod her head. "Right side'a the spectrum..." She said back at the floating woman. At Stephen she saw him move toward the building and then speak up about the lock door.

"No Magic?" She asked, while following him up to the door and then glancing back at Carol. "Well." She exhaled and then would reach for the handle and just sort've move to SMASH her hand through the door.

"Don't need magic t'get through a dumb door. Am I right?" She asked with a grin, her borrowed-powers from Carol coming to use again in her life over these past two years!

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
Carol looks aside at Rogue and grins as Doctor Strange does the billowing cloak thing, "does he look extra mysterious or what?" Carol lets Rogue ceremoniously open the door for the group, as she flies inside, "you know what makes thieves work extra efficently? Knowing their time is running out..." and then Carol booms her voice, "One. Two. We're coming for you..." on the one hand, it's a Freddt Krueger rip off, on the other hand? Captain Marvel, Rogue and Strange coming at you is probably scarier. She uses her Kree 7th Sense to help guide her in the right direction of trouble, towards the super thieves. "This way," she notes to the others.

Penguin has posed:
    The five thieves drop into the ground floor, one by one, all of them Parkour trained. As they hear the door smash open, they look between each other, muttering in French, before they hear Carol. They all reach to their hips, drawing long fillet knives with escrima grips.

The building is designed to be asymmetric and confusing, the lights dim in the night. The silent alarm is tripped by the door being smashed, contacting Gotham City Police, as well as the special federal unit in Gotham placed there to deal with magical or metahuman incidents. As the police radios light up, and a meta-containment officer at a shabby little office near Gotham Major Crimes gets off his little sofa with a fresh can of Coke and sits at his computer to look up at the details of the disturbance site, a police scanner crackles in a limosuine several blocks over. Penguin sits in the back of the limo, listening, and lights up a cigarette in his holder, looking perturbed, but nonetheless resolute.

The team breaks up, with Voltaire darting past a camera in the lowlight, his shadow narrowly visible to the approaching Captain Marvel, before he swerves around a corner and drops into a stairwell to the first basement floor. Sartre, meanwhile, has faded out of sight, into a shadow.

Descartes, Montesquieu, and Weil confront the three interlopers, with their knives out. They spread out into a triangle, with Descartes in front, Weil to left, and Montesquieu to the right.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Rogue. Light please." Strange requests, thinking this to be a great opportunity for her to use the spell he's been teaching her, nothing like the rush of battle to fuel ones learning process.

    Watching the thief slip into the shadows, Stephen is certain which foe he will be facing and puts a hand on their shoulders. "You got the three in front?" Before he turns around to face their rear and he slowly begins to lift off the ground a few inches and around his hands a orange neon circle appears with sigils filling the circles in and glowing brightly as Stephen awaits his own fight.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue grinned at Carol as she flew up and into the building. "Sometimes its just fun t'smash shit." She said at the blonde before going to follow after her, though Rogue was still just walking.

A look was sent back to Stephen and she nodded at him. "Oh, uh, right." She said then before glancing down at hher gloved hands and moving to play them together. "I need me a big flowy cape so I can look extra mysterious too..." She muttered while focusing on the hand motions that Strange had taught her.

Rogue spoke quietly the words and tried to focus as she'd been instructed, not even worrying about any alarms or police involvement... cause why would they?

When their attackers arrived, Rogue's gloved hands were glowing from the inside... a bright LED-like white light eminating from between her fingers... But their sudden arrival breaks her concentration and she loses the spell and looks up!

"Knives?" Rogue says. "Really?"

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"You felt it...?" Carol asks Strange, for while she didn't see Voltaire darting past her, she is made aware of it thanks to the Kree in her. Still, the Doctor's appraisal of the situation is a good one, and she nods at Rogue, "we got this."

"Don't bother, a cape is a serious hinderence in combat, trust me," Carol notes for Rogue, maybe she should take some time to teach the girl who has all her gifts.

While Rogue's spell may have fizzled, Captain Marvel provides illumination thanks to her own fists starting to glow brilliantly. If the group of super thieves did their Avengers research, they ought to know it's bad news. "You don't bring a knife to a photon blast fight," Carol quips, before showering Descartes with a a photonic blast. She means to be furious and bring the fight to end as quickly as possible. She knows if you underestimate your opponent, it ends up bad. See the girl next to her as a prime example.

Penguin has posed:
Descartes is struck by the blast, send reeling across the lobby into a wall. The wall cracks behind him, and he falls forward, unconscious. Montesquieu, meanwhile, locks onto Carol with his mind syncretic ability to fuel his agility and dexterity abilities. He goes rushing forwards, before jumping up into the air, off the ground. His knife held down, his legs tuck upwards with knees, feet below him and arms up, hanging at the peak of his jump in that position. Then, as he falls down, he swerves about and slashes at her with his blade.

Weil, meanwhile, goes sprinting forwards at Rogue with her fillet-escrima knife, rubber commando boots falling silently on the ground. She slashes forward with a grit of her teeth, only her eyes visible.

From the shadows cast by the trio of heroes, Sartre emerges from a shadow behind Dr. Strange, attempting to thrust his knife into Strange's back from his waist, aiming at Strange's upper back.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen's back was towards Carol and Rogue's back so the teleporting thief got the drop on all three of them and chose his target wonderfully only there was one thing most people don't know about when attacking Strange. His cloak reacts to the attack before Stephen even knows it's coming and it wraps around Sartre's wrist, preventing the blade from sinking into it's intended target.

    Strange looks over his shoulder and spins, dropping down, his foot lashing out to trip the thief and repositions himself to a less disadvantageous position.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue was watching Carol with her pretty and neat photon hand-things and it just made her stare with hero-worship. At least... until she got that tingle in her mind that danger was imminent and she looked over to see the thief rushing her with a knife!

Slash slash slash! Rogue's clothing was cut up but nothing happened to the skin beneath. She looked down at herself, her damnaged threads and then looked bacdk up at the knife wielding lunatic! Rogue gasped!

"I just bought these!" She said to the slasher, reaching a hand out to intercept the knife on a stab for her throat!

Rogue was kind of ruthless, especially when she was angered... so her solution to this threat was to simply grab their knife-y hand and snap it at the wrist!

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"One down," Carol announces to her compatriots, grinning at the two left facing Rogue and herself, as she showboats with blowing the tip of her finger like it was a smoking gun. But it seems like the other two are not deterred and jump into action.

Carol observes, anticipates, and she is very much ready for Montesquieu to come at her. She waits as he performs his impressive maneuvers and tumbling, but when he reaches the apex and starts coming down at her for a slash, she flies directly up at him, reaching to punch him into the ceiling while entirely ignoring the blade. Should he strike true, he might be appaled to find the blade shattering. Yes, this is the real Captain Marvel, not a Moonstone cheap imitation.

Penguin has posed:
Sartre is taken to the ground in cheap form, before he fades into the floor, stripped off his knife. And then, a moment later, he drops from the ceiling behind Doctor Strange, attempting to land atop him and pull his arms around Strange's neck and shoulders, pulling him backwards with a wrench as the thief hits his feet. If successful, he's attempting to pull Strange off his feet and toss him to the ground with a twist.

There's a scream as Weil's wrist is snapped at an odd angle, the knife falling from her hand. She turns to the side, wailing, before her wrist snaps back into position. Weil aims a punch at Rogue's nose, aiming where the bone connects with cartilidge.

Montesquieu is sent flying up into the ceiling, his knie shattering. He wraps his legs around the hero charging him up into the ceiling while he's still pinned, the focus on her increasing aggression boosting his senses, and he attempts to spring down as he inverts himself. If his maneuver works, he's attempting to pull Marvel down with him and force her to fly into the ground, facefirst, with an arc.

Voltaire, meanwhile, emerges from the basement with a metal case under his arm, with a deer-man engraving on it.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Strange's defences aren't as honed as he thought they were and the teleporter easily gets the drop on the wizard, who's choke hold is well executed.

    Stephen looses his stance and the theif rolls him over onto his back easily and the hold his held. The cloak attempts to fight against and pull Stephen away from the strangler but his positioning is just so that the cloak itself can't do too much to save Stephen.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue didn't know if this person had super strength of any variety or not, but her Seventh Sense didn't really work like that... it warned her if any potential threats were coming her way and as-such it made Rogue's eyes look up from the snapped wrist to the fist coming toward her nose!

Rogue would reach up to deflect the punch and then step out of the way... "Now I'm gettin' angry!" She said at this woman and her insistant attacks....

Rogue leaned forward into a football style attacked and took off with the use of her flight-power, projecting herself AND the woman into the nearest-byest wall! She'd either knock the woman out, or worse, depending on the thieve's resilience!

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
While Montesquieu's reflexes are impressive as he boosts his agility, between the two of them, Carol is likely the superior hand to hand fighter. Nevermind the level of opposition she had faced in her time, she reads Montesquieu's actions rather well and slams to a sharp stop, both her arms reaching to grab him as she uses her super strength to hurl him in a fastball toss directly at Sartre who is accosting Dr. Strange. This time, she doesn't warn with a cry of incoming, she just flies directly down to complete the move with a double punch to each of them, should they manage to stay up.

Why is she not checking up on Rogue quite yet? Because she has faith in the girl, if she managed to take her out, she's certain that with the powers she boosted from her, she could easily handle these glorified super thieves. Their fame, after all, comes from heists, not fighting crazy super powered angry girls.

Penguin has posed:
Sartre looks up, his eyes widening as he sees Montesquieu barreling at him. The pair slam into each other with cries, both of them knocked out cold. Weil, meanwhile, has been driven into a wall, her insides caving in. Blood gurgles out of her mouth as the frail creature crumples to the ground, apparently dead, although subtly regenerating.

Voltaire slides out from a backdoor, disappearing into Penguin's waiting limosuine with the astral cartogram. The limosuine pulls off into the night, a distant thunder back as police rush through the streets towards the Gotham University building, the limosuine passing along the other direction.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue stood over the body of the person she'd just run through the wall. She saw blood coming out of their nose and the general look of 'dead' on the woman's face and crumpled body. It made Rogue's stomach turn over in disgust, but... shit... she was angry and the person was bad! Rogue still had a lot of Mystique's training in her. She'd spent more time with Mystique than she has with the X-Men so far... plus she was living with Strange these days and not under the direct influence of Xavier OR the X-Men anymore.

Rogue just shook her head and stepped out of the hole in the wall that she'd made, moving toward where Strange was laying there.

Rogue frowned and went to pick her new mentor and teacher up into her arms. "You okay, ya big lump?" She asked the man while doing so.

"Can't take you anywhere..."

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
As Rogue is looking over the very dead looking Sartre, she would feel a hand resting on her shoulder, "it's part of it, Rogue, and why you need to be well aware of the power you wield." It's a soft spoken voice Carol uses, she's not lecturing, so much as informing. She's not about to lash into Rogue for seemingly killing Sartre. Not right now at this moment.

"Since when are you hanging out with Doctor Strange?" Is the next question that comes to mind, Carol can't see Xavier letting his students hangout and especially go on missions with the Sorcerer Supreme.

Laughing at Rogue's disrespect to Strange, Carol adds, "I'm sure he'll be fine, you want me to take him with me to the Avengers HQ, or you got a place you know he prefers?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue looked up at Carol after she addressed her, she stood up, holding Strange in her arms as though he weighed next to nothing and she smirked at her. "Since my failed marriage." She replied the older woman who she had a great deal of respect for. Rogue hadn't known anything ABOUT Carol back when Mystique manipulated her into attacking the atomic blonde... once she'd realized the errors of her ways, though, her idols switched from Mystique, to Captain Marvel. Oh the irony. Mystique probably wasn't laughing about it much though.

"He saved me from doin' somethin' stupid, afte'ah it all went down the shitter." Rogue said softly, with a sigh and a shake of her head. "Thanks for the advice though, I don't like killin' even if its the right thing in the moment." Poor girl had no idea that that thief was regenerating in the other room though.

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"Marriage...?" Carol was caught off guard by that tidbit, "aren't you a bit, well, young?" She asks rather rudely, before following with, "and how is it already failed? I didn't even know you got married." Not a surprise, seeing how Carol and Rogue for the most part would likely rather keep well away of each other, for mental health purposes.

Carol hadn't an inkling about the regeneration powers of that thief herself, if that thief was smart, an escape is the best choice. "What were you going to do...?" Carol asks in a heavy tone.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue snorted softly at the bit about her age and it made her shake her head lightly side to side. "Half the time, Carol... I'm sayin' shit that YOU would say or think.... rathe'ah than what -I- would say or think. Let alone, ghostly recollections of all the othe'ah folks I've brushed up against... So I may be young in body and on pape'ah... but I'm not sure how old I am up inside'a my head anymore."

Another little shake of said head and Rogue glanced back at the woman. "Guy was betrothed to went'n got himself stabbed... Like, -during- the ceremony. By some six arm bitched that everyon calls 'Spiral'."

Rogue released a heavy sigh then and looked around them. "I don't know, Carol. I'm tired... I ain't even twenty years old on my I.D. and all I wanna do is sleep all day and neve'ah wake up."

Another shrug of her shoulders as she carried the infamous doctor sleepy strange in her arms. "Whateve'ah though. Keep movin' forward... As Rocky Balboa would say."

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
Carol levels a rather solemn gaze at Rogue, while it seems like what she said would be good cause for a laugh, Carol understands the troubles. She has some of her own, not quite like Rogue, but very derivative. Her own life doesn't feel like her own, and she's not always sure of who she is, and what her personality is. The experience with Rogue having detached her from her emotions and memories in a weird fashion. Nevermind the Binary reboot she got a few years back. As they say, it's complicated.

"I'll give you that kiddo, you're far too old for your age on a mental level, and I'm sorry for it." Not that it's Carol's fault, but Mystique isn't exactly around to beat up. "We need to talk sometime. A real talk. I think we need to bury the past in the past, and there's a lot of past between us...take good care of the Doctor, I'll be seeing you," she gives Rogue a salute, and goes off to update the police about all that took place.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue nodded her head softly to Carol. "Just give me a ring, numbe'ahs the same as it has been since the park." She told the other before smiling faintly at her.

With the GCPD sirens roaring closer, Rogue glanced down at Strange...

"Why didn't ya start teachin me the Teleport spell, rathe'ah than a boring ball'a light?" She sighed.

Rogue lifted up into the sky and made for the direction of Manhattan. "I hate flyin' long ways..." She muttered on her way out.