4165/Conflict at the Plaza

Conflict at the Plaza
Date of Scene:	29 March 2018
Location:	Metropolis
Synopsis:	The Metropolis Plaza (not to be confused with Metropolis Sqare (@tel #22, ala SHMUX) was attacked by Chemo and Equinox. Heroes helped stop the threat. But many were radiated and injured by the collateral damage. Damage was done to the environment, but Damage Control fixed it.
Cast of Characters:	Blackout, Slipstream, Power Girl, Iron Man, Chemo, Equinox

---

Blackout has posed:
It's a plaza. That means lots of bystanders and people walking about doing their daily business. That and it's also noon. So many more people (in the hundreds) are littering the walkways and plaza benches having their lunch. There are a few food trucks on the street and serving the various business persons coming from Frost International 7 floor building. The sun is shining, birds singing, and it's a normal day in the great city of Metropolis.

    The point of interest is an armored car that pulls up to the curb, a good 40 yards from the building with the plaza between the two points. The fountain divides the distance. The armored vehicle comes to a stop and the passenger gets out. He moves around to the back of the vehicle and opens the door. Within the door are three people. A man wearing a business suit, briefcase handcuffed to his left wrist. A man wearing camo fatigues carrying a small semi auto close range rifle. And another wearing all black, seamless and clearly a metahuman of some sort as the material over his body covers him completely, even his eyes and mouth in a semi solid plate. The man in all black takes the rear right flank, the armed man walks ahead, and the business man in the middle. They look both ways before entering the boundaries of the plaza and begin walking toward the 7 floor building entrance.

Slipstream has posed:
Having decided to head into Metropolis on vacation to see the sights while on vacation from the Overwatch League, Drake is currently heading down the sidewalk with a pair of black and gold headphones over his ears. He is wearing his varsity Overwatch jacket and a pair of destroyed denim jeans. Snowball flies behind him, scanning his body at times and sending data back to Mister Stark. The little robot makes cute little animated noises, bumping his shoulder at times to get his attention which causes him to grin. On her face plate is her eyes in a n.n expression of robotic glee. As they look to cross the street, he catches sight of the men with the weapon heading for the building. He pulls the headphones down to his neck, squinting as he continues closer in a casual gait.

Blackout has posed:
A rumbling of the ground signals danger. Almost like an earthquake of 4.1 on the rhictor scale. It startles the people in and around the plaza. Shakes them to the very core. The water of the fountain demonstrates odd ripples and the spraying of water zig zags all around. The 7 floor building is jostled, but it needs to be much higher to do significant damage. The concrete cracks. Ripples, and then rises 20 feet in an instant. Chunks of concrete are cast into the air. Many other chunks hit bystanders, pinning them to the ground, breaking legs, wrists, arms, shoulders, giving concussions, bumps, bruises, etc.

    Emerging from the rising mountain of concrete, dirt, and metal is a vile looking creature. Standing about 25 feet tall, the monstrosity roars and looks around for targets to attack. http://tinyurl.com/ycf4texd

    From the north side of the plaza, another assailant flies in. Arms and legs are a-flame, while his torso is solid ice. The man calls to his companion, "Destroy them all!". But it's clear he has a target, the man with the brief case. Which he is flying directly toward. When he is within 75 yards, he blasts flame down both arms toward the man with the brief case. http://tinyurl.com/yafrmkoy

    The man in black steps forward, putting himself 10 feet in front of the man with the brief case. A black wall is suddenly erected in front of him, blocking the attack from the flaming guy.. It deflects the flame.

    The man with the machine gun opens fire on the very tall monstrosity, which is around 20 yards to his west. (7 story building to the west beyond the monster, street and armored car is to the east about 15 yards away. more plaza to the south).

Slipstream has posed:
When the rumble hits, Drake jostles about on his feet as he reaches out to snag a street sign to steady himself. Snowball makes a number of concerned whirls and noises as she starts to spin about in a 360 degree circle, filming and systemically cataloging what is going on. "Holy shit, what is that thing?" He calls over to his robot companion, wondering if she has some type of super bad guy wikipedia programmed into her, or at least, hopefully Tony is eavesdropping. He takes a half second to assess, then blinks out of sight as he pushes off one foot. The world moves in slow motion around him as he charges through his speed powers, yanking bystanders to the side and away from falling debris and ushering them to safety. Each time he blinks, his watch on his wrist chimes loudly in warning in a bright blue light.

"Snowball! Execute manuever Echo Delta Sixty-Two!" The young vigilante calls out to the small robot as he jerks his way to the side to avoid some concrete while snagging a child and spinning her around and out of the way. The robot whirls to life, her eyes turning from a light blue n.n to red X.X's on it's faceplate as she jolts upwards with a DOO-DA-DOO! chime. As it rushes the large monstrosity that rises from the ground, a small device pops out from beneath her and begins to spray the creature down with a thick film of liquid ice that will quickly harden into a cocoon like state if allowed in an attempt to slow it down. This will hopefully allow the unknown gunmen and the superhero with the dark powers to take advantage of the situation.

Power Girl has posed:
    Admittedly, they brought something like the right kind of firepower to attempt a robbery like this in Metropolis. Chemo is a monstrosity more than anything, but the moment the sound of his approach reaches her ears, a pinkish-red blur begins streaking across the sky.

    She zones in on the only major threat she can see- though she is aware of Equinox down on the street, he seems to be meeting something approaching his match in whoever happens to be projecting that black wall.

    At the same time, Drake seems to have engaged Chemo- and as the small robot goes to freeze what it can on the monstrosity, Power Girl hooks around, delaying her approach for only a few moments... Before surging forward. She has less restraint in situations like this than Superman- and it's hard not to figure out what Chemo is from looking at him- so when she hits him, it's not at full strength.

    It is, however, at Mach II.

    What follows is a series of blows that she intends to keep the creature off balance- leveraging her maneuverability and speed in order to stay out of its grasp, and make sure that it understands to fight her, and nobody else.

Blackout has posed:
Pulling up, the flame-ice guy (Equinox) remains in the sky but will continue flying forward and be directly over the man with the brief case (30 feet up). He fires again (hahaha, I said 'fires') with another flame blast that goes directly downward toward the briefcase holding man.

    Meanwhile, 20 or so yards away, the 25 ft tall monstrosity raises both hands above his head. The ice will have little to no effect. The creature is far too strong for coccoons of spray-on ice. The ice will surely stick in certain areas. But not binding. The creature grips his fists together, and then slams down into the ground. Causing a significant amount of noise, damage, and a shockwave (ground and air based) that shatters much glass in the 7 floor building and topples all the bystanders to the ground. Including the man in black (Blackout), the briefcase guy, and the camo wearing man. It also causes the armored vehicle to be knocked back and onto its side and other traffic also suffers the same fate, or worse if they are lighter in weight. Obviously the bullets didn't harm the 25 ft monster. However......

    When Power Girl strikes the creature at Mach II there will be an additional shockwave of sound and force emitting to the sides of the creature. A double sonic boom of boomness. The creature was doubled over when she struck, and it has the advangage of size and mass, however, she will present with greater strength. She knocks it back and it will fall backwards toward many more bystanders who are prone from the earthquake, shockwave, and debris.

    There are at least 100 bystanders in and around the plaza. Hundreds more in the nearby 7 floor building.

Slipstream has posed:
Even though Snowball is more of an icy distraction, she continues to try and pour on the Blizzard as she tries to at least wear it down by the legs and lock him into place for Power Girl to use him for a punching bag. The entire time, she bobs about, recording everything into her database to transmit back to Stark Tower on the fly.

Drake finds himself toppling to the ground as he comes out of SlipStream, ramming into a wall and bouncing off it before he blinks out again as he catches sight of the flame rushing towards the man with the suitcase. He appears next to him, arms looping around him and then throws himself backwards as his powers ripple once more, causing him to jerk off to the side in a fling as the pair goes tumbling down and hopefully away from the blast. "You gotta get to cover, dude. They're after you for some reason." He says rapidly as he feels the surge of adrenaline pour through him. His device on his left wrist is wailing away into code yellow as his nose breaks out into a bloody stream as he feels his body rebel against the use of his powers. He wobbles for a moment, then blinks out again as he forces himself through the pain so that he can help the bystanders on the ground as best as he can.

Power Girl has posed:
    The repeated slams of her fist into the distracted Chemo do exactly what Power Girl wants them to do. As soon as she can feel one land with enough force to send him toppling, she makes her move to, she hopes, remove the threat. All the while, she calls out to Drake.

    "Help the guy in black! Deal with Equinox!"

    Drake is, admittedly, one step ahead of her (as appropriate for a speedster) and is already on his way when Chemo falls. Power Girl's gambit here is simple- she can't let him fall on any bystanders, but she can't have him on his feet, either. She swoops in at a blinding speed, moving under him faster than he's falling. Her hands point towards his back- the kind of maneuver only someone with super-speed can accomplish, as she aims to catch Chemo as he falls from her own strikes.

    As soon as she does so- assuming she does- she'll start forcing herself upwards. Gritting with effort, she fully intends to take this 25-foot monster right out of the atmosphere.

Blackout has posed:
Catching Chemo, Power Girl saves bystanders from getting squished. They start crawling away, some scampering to their feet. But they are still slower than the metahuman/alien/powered/hero/villain/etc. So it takes them a bit longer to get to safety. Clearing the entire plaza will take approximately 15 rounds and only 2.5 have passed.

    Chemo writhes, breaking the ice sprayed upon its feet and will turn to the side planting a hand down and turning onto its side. Then suddenly, the creature releases a large toxic radioactive flash that will emit outward in all directions, spreading about as fast as the bystanders can move. But, will immediately cover Power Girl with the toxic radiation (surely won't do any harm to her, just stinky, lung filling, costume ruining, icky, radiation.

    Blackout gets to his feet and will blast at Equinox.

    Equinox turns in mid flight, remaining 30 feet off the ground, he surveys the area and is suddenly nailed by a darkforce blast which entangles him for a brief second. Only long enough for his flame to burn off the extradimensional substance.

    The camo wearing guy gets to his feet and starts running toward the businessman. He calls out, "Phil! Get to the truck! Move!"

    The businessman is still disoriented from the teleport, nearly pukes. He looks around, confused.

    Other bystanders get to their feet, start trying to get away.

Slipstream has posed:
"Snowball! Wall it off!" Drake yells over to the robot as he looks to hike the businessman up to his feet roughly, giving him a push forward. "Go, man, go!" He calls over as he rubs a hand under his bleeding nose, smearing the red across his cheek. Pushing off his foot again, he blurs out of sight, appearing next to another injured man on the ground as he blinks him to safety, followed by another, and another, and another. Each time, his wrist band screams in a loud alert, going from yellow to orange. One look at him see that he is in pain, but he pushes himself through it as he escorts the injured away, moving back and forth through the crowd.

Snowball shoots upwards into the air as she executes her ultimate, firing out a large, thick wall of ice as it hits the ground and rises striaght upwards in a curve to try and catch the radioactive material and to block it from spreading out into the street. The little robot is chugging away with all her internal power supplies squeezing out every bit of juice to apply it to her ice cannon, making a loud whirling noise as her eyes go from X.X to --.-- As the ice wall surges upwards, it will look to curve over the top of the material to try and absorb it.

Power Girl has posed:
    Power Girl is working to wrangle the writhing monstrosity on top of her. She has the advantage in strength, of course, especially over the stone and mortar that Chemo is trying to anchor himself in. She lets out this loud and angry growl of effort, trying to find that perfect area of strength expression that allows her to take off with Chemo... While also not risking a breach of his shell.

    She's putting her strength to something of the test- not necessarily in raw strength, but as she begins lifting off of the ground, in pure control. She accelerates as soon as she feels Chemo start to pulse, shoving roughly upwards into the air.

    An ice dome forms, and Power Girl shouts a word that several attending civilians, and perhaps even Drake, will be loathe to repeat- but who can blame her? The dome forms directly above her, adding more weight for her to carry skyward. The drag, the sheer mass of Chemo, and more, just add more difficulty in getting this load out of the realm of danger.

    As well, because -of course- it does, the pulse of harmful toxins and radiation harms her outfit. It's grotesque, and Power Girl feels a little sick to her stomach- but otherwise, she's likely unharmed by something so basic.

    She can't take him at anything above the speed of sound, but she is accelerating, propeling herself, Chemo, and Drake's ice-dome upwards into the sky.

Blackout has posed:
Chemo writhes, wriggles, struggles to escape the grasp of the upwards lifting Power Girl and the downward pressure of the ice dome. Radiation increases, irridating and melting the ice above the monstrosity. Arms flail around, chunks of ice fall from great heights as the dome breaks into bits. Those radioactive chunks fall downward toward the bystanders within the plaza.

    The camera turns back to Equinox who is very irritated at this point. He yells at the interlopers, "You cannot stop the Thermodynamic Man!" and then realizes he recently changed his name to Equinox and irrationally blasts toward innocent civilians with one arm (arcing fire in a great streaming cone) and with the other arm blasts Blackout backwards to knock him sliding into his own erected darkforce wall from the earlier round. Blackout will be slightly dazed, but otherwise unharmed from the flame blast.

    The Camo guy rushes up and grabs the businessman, practically dragging him eastward toward the armored truck. Though the truck is on its side, it will provide some cover, and way better than being out in the open of the plaza. They will not reach the truck for another two rounds.

    The radioactive/toxic cloud that was originally released around Chemo is waffed outward by the sudden rise of the dome. Puffing outward and striking various civilians as they try to escape.

Slipstream has posed:
It just seems that nothing is going to plan, and nothing is working. Drake is coughing loudly as he speeds through blink by blink, tugging bystandards away from falling concrete and ice as best he can. His lungs are burning. His stomach is flip-flopping. His ears are ringing. He feels like every part of him is tearing itself apart. Faster! Must be faster! He commands himself as he zips through pockets of speed, snagging children as he goes, an elder woman, a girl trapped beneath a block. Tears streak down his face in bloody rivets as he lets out a primal scream as he blinks right behind Equinox, slamming his fists together. "OH LET'S BREAK IT DOWN!" He shouts out Lucio's tag line as he looks to use his super charged up speed to slam it into the back of the man at full force with the speed of sound. There is a pocket boom from him that ripples as he hopes to crush the man under the weight of sonic impact. He cries out as his power releases, and will hit the ground in a crippled heap upon follow through. The bracelet on his arm glows a dark red, the alarms sounding wildly as Snowball comes blurring down towards him, chirping in panic.

Power Girl has posed:
    Power Girl has one option. In the face of combat, Chemo would have continued to release ever more virulent toxins and increased radiation, a threat to everyone in the city. She hates that there are bystanders at risk of disease and sickness, but it's so much better than instant death or vaporization.

    Her composure is shot to some degree- she's calm enough to make the decisions she needs to, but at the same time, she's also the most blunt of her race. The words she's using are unable to be mentioned, though every few seconds she says the word "dome" followed by an expletive or three.

    She's picking up speed and hitting the point where exit from the atmosphere is going to occur- and that's the point at which she pushes forward, flipping to press her back into Chemo and carry him that way. Her vision zooms in on chunks of ice, and bolts of red light burst from her eyes, striking out at each of them in succession. The heat and power of each bolt of heat-vision should be enough to vaporize the blocks of ice, and allow their harmful components to disperse in the air harmlessly- she hopes Drake can take care of any that she can't.

    Technically pulling double or triple duty- or more- Power Girl is at least making everyone aware of why people -normally- don't try these sorts of shenanigans in Metropolis.

Iron Man has posed:
"These were not really the stress tests I had in mind, kid," Tony Stark's deep sigh can be heard in a voice coming to Drake from, well, Snowball. The Avenger picked up on the insane activity that the little Snowball drone is being asked to perform.

Iron Man has arrived, with two additional 'Iron Man' armors in tow. Which may distract some of the bystanders and make them slower, actually, because that's something to point at and cheer about when they REALLY should be running. The armors peel off and land near the crowds of people, and begin to broadcast their fairly familiar, 'Please relocate to safety beyond this point,' metallic-voiced messages. Tony himself hovers overhead over the mess of action, quickly scanning, and starting to construct a forcefield shell between his two armored suits on the ground, to protect the citizens. It is a paneled, glittering golden construct as it starts to build. The suits are anchors, and don't move much, though they will repeat their instructions.

And, almost idly, Iron Man begins to start shooting here and there to take out raining debris and ice. Which does make Tony a big interesting target, with the flashing repulsor beams going off in the air. That's fairly intentional.

And then Iron Man flips over to the Justice League communication channel: "Hi there, any of you here? Seeing some lasers, guessing yes. This your party?"

Blackout has posed:
Countless bystanders are burned by the gulf of flame that Equinox lambasted across the plaza.     Blackout is annoyed, but his face isn't seen, so there's really no way to discern such an event. He pushes himself off the darkforce wall and off his back. He looks to his client - the businessman with the handcuffed suitcase, and the assistant wearing camo as they both rush toward the armored truck for cover. The truck, being on its side will easily provide good cover from the flying Equinox villain. He then targets Equinox again with his darkforce attack. . The attack strikes Equinox in his icy chest, cracking the ice. But Equinox isn't totally phased. He has a target. R
    Chunks of radioactive ice fall to the ground from high above. Shattering, casting debris all around. The radioactive cloud in the middle of the plaza expands outward, overtaking bystanders who are trying to flee the scene. Many are massively exposed as they inhale the cloud of radioactive and toxic stuff.

    Chemo and Power Girl are able to reach the edge of the atmosphere. However, in route, Chemo left a trail of serious radiation and toxic stuff in their wake.

    Upon Iron Man's arrival (with suits in tow), he is able to help deflect much of the other debris and then prevent the cloud of radioactive/toxic gas from expanding any farther. Those already exposed will be safer, even though they have fallen to the ground coughing and feeling immediately sick.

    The assistance from Drake is also quite successful in preventing death from falling radioactive ice. As well as from higher altitudes, Power Girl lasers help too. It was a large dome, and lots of potential early on. Now the ice is just an annoyance (albeit a radioactive one where the water that comes from it is also going to effect the concrete of the plaza if something isn't done quickly.

Blackout has posed:
In the same moment that Blackout strikes Equinox from the front, so does Drake from the rear. The double attack does indeed crack Equinox's ice torso. He'll get over it pretty quickly since he controls all levels of ice and fire. This will only slow him down for a brief moment.

Slipstream has posed:
Skidding along the ground after he releases his build up, Drake lets out a sputtering couch as his entire body twitches in painful spasms. The red light on his bracelet flashes dangerously as Snowball floats around him, continuing to scan and monitor his vitals. There is a painful grunt as he hears Tony's voice, cracking his eyes open to see the trio of Iron Men descending upon the wreckage. He lets out another bloody cough as he curls himself up a bit, trying to focus past the pain of his powers ripping him apart and trying to destabalize by the technology of his bracelet.

Power Girl has posed:
    Reaching the edge of the atmosphere, Power Girl is holding onto Chemo for the last few seconds, until... The exact moment she can feel two things. First, that she is no longer subject to atmospheric friction, and that she is no longer subject to gravity. Though it can't be heard in space, her grin accompanies a couple of words, one of which is definitely "finally", and the other of which also begins with F.

    In that spare instant, she accelerates, breaching the speed of light as she travels towards the moon. She decelerates in an instant, still clinging to Chemo, but the moment she arrives, she will start slamming her fists into him. Her intent? To break apart the shell and expose the goop, so that he is no longer a threat- either left to freeze on the moon, or left to remain sludge incapable of incorporating itself without the shell.

Iron Man has posed:
Iron Man has a short little private chat with his AI about the various dangers and injuries the population is sustaining, potential strategies for containing it, and requests a variety of medical support from his contacts, directing to where it should be staged. They'll need the hospitals to be prepared. Radiation treatments. All those things non-veteran heroes don't think about. Tony's got a program for that.

Otherwise, Iron Man focuses on aerial support at first, launching bolts as needed to support those already here on the scene (pew pew, debris explosions!), as he's not entirely up to speed on what's going on yet. "If you make me come down there and scrape you up, I won't be happy," Tony admonishes Drake through Snowball's speaker. "I still haven't upgraded a super-spatula into these suits. With how often it comes up, you really think I would add it. But no, always optimistic---"

Yeah, Iron Man's on his way on down; he'll hover roughly near Drake and take in the readings on the villain and whoever Blackout is. While he was talking and shooting here and there, of course. If Blackout clearly needs assistance, those shots will be aimed that way. Priorities.

Blackout has posed:
    Blackout seems to talk over a radio within his mask and he starts running toward the armored vehicle. He will arrive at the same time as the camo guy and the business man carrying the briefcase. They all take shelter behind the armored truck.

    Equinox tracks Blackout's movements, but also spots the arrival and looming threat of Iron Man. He decides it's best to depart. He says nothing as he turns his entire body into flame and flies northward at super-star sonic speeds.

    Meanwhile, on the moon. After the speed-of-light movement, there is nothing left of Chemo as he was completely disintegrated by the E=MC2 moment. And Power Girl has nothing to pummel.

    Iron Man will discern that Blackout is covered by Darkforce armor. An interdimensional substance that protects him from harm. He seems to be trying to protect the businessman with the briefcase.

    Police/Fire/Rescue/Paramedics/HAZMAT/Damage Control/etc are en route. Police/Fire are closest and will be first responders within a few rounds. Bystanders are still fleeing the scene. Trying to clear the outdoor plaza.

Power Girl has posed:
    Power Girl doesn't stop to take a breath, with Chemo dispersed. Instead, she spins in the air, and begins booking it back to Earth. It'll take her mere seconds, but she's not going directly back to the combat- instead, she stops off at the office, delaying her arrival by another few spare moments, unwilling to handle civilians while garbed in a set of clothes that are, well, genuinely harmful. Her body disperses the radiation fine- and her skin won't be harmful by the time she gets there. The suit, though, has become a hazard.

    The benefit of being impossibly fast is that she returns in less than a minute- likely even less than half of a minute, though she can't breach the light-barrier in atmosphere or risk... Basically everything.

    When she returns, she finally speaks over the JL communications to Iron Man, in the meantime moving to get any and all civilians out of harm's way.

    "It wasn't a party, and if it was, it was definitely not one of mine."

Slipstream has posed:
There is a pained whimper from Drake, "Yes sir." He gets out as he slowly pushes himself up to his feet as he clutches his stomach with a loud cough of blood. "I'm fine, sir." He looks fine. You can tell by the way he barely holds himself up and how he is shaking like a leaf in a tornado. Snowball tucks herself under his arm to straighten him up as he blinks through glazed eyes at the chaos. He coughs again, feeling the sting and burn of toxins in the air, then gives the front of his shirt a tug upwards to cover his mouth. "Where do you need me at, sir?"

Iron Man has posed:
"A medical bed in the Avenger's mansion. I even have your ride," Tony answers Drake. "You're all done." Firm. The Avenger leader's word is law. Tony recalls the two other robotic suits; one of them appears to be going to babysit Drake rather obviously, standing over him. Probably the 'ride' mentioned.

"Man, alright, I hate arriving just in time to watch people clean up. A bit too far on 'fashionably late'," Tony sighs at Power Girl, and then heads right on over to the armored truck, and the group there. "

Hi," Iron Man projects casually. "Still have all your parts?" And certainly scanning to see what this whole thing is about. If they're transporting something dangerous, he's certainly curious to know about it.

Blackout has posed:
    <dropping out of combat phases>

     Blackout notes the arrival of Iron Man and states to the Camo guy, "Reggie, Handle him.". Blackout then notes as he starts walking the businessman away, "Iron Man, we'll talk later. This is time sensitive." Blackout then escorts the Businessman with the briefcase skirting around the combat area to the 7 floor building where they will be greeted by security and escorted deeper into the building.

    The Camo guy says, "Iron Man, I'm Reginald Ipsum Locum. You should know the following. Mr Matterson is carrying technical information to Frost International and it is quite time sensitive. Non dangerous. Safety of the world and all that. Or something important. I'm just a hired guard. So, it's best to just let them handle their tech info stuff. Thanks."

    Police/Fire/Paramedics/HAZMAT arrive and begin the decontamination of the area and help with civilian injuries/contamination. Damage Control representative Robin Chapel arrives on the scene and will begin working with departments to organize a good cleanup and proper repair of the Plaza.