| Attempted MacGuffin Theft | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary: At the top of the Huron Building, Xanatos Enterprises has a new prototype... And someone wants it. Who: Batman, Hisako, La_Pucelle, Muradin, Nivira, Supreme, David Xanatos When: March 19th, 2017 Where: The Huron Building     |
The building is, of course, mostly empty outside of security at this hour and day. But up on the rooftop castle, the building's owner and his personal assistant are there, discussing their latest project. "Sir, I am aware things were relatively neat and clean with the Phoenix Gate in our home dimension," says the bespectacled assistant. "But things could well behave... differently here." "Of course they can, Owen," says the bearded owner. "I'm not foolish enough to go any further than just a few minutes... We'll take things slow... I've learned my lesson after that whole Soul Edge incident." Batman emerges from the shadows of a nearby building as he sees the figure leaping across the rooftops. He fires a bat-grapple and launches himself to the rooftop.....with cool accompanying score. Nothing like a bit an inspiration trip before you get to do some hammering! Literally in Muradin's case. He's all ready to start on Jason's commission for a sword and Urus' armor, he just needs that extra artistic inspiration to get things underway. This high tech city does tend to get an old school dwarf bogged down a bit and it has made Muradin been highly aware he's not in Azeroth anymore. So! A quick way to fix that is to go to a more medieval area of the city and take a gander at all the knight suits and medieval weapons around. "Now this is more my style!" Chirps Muradin as he walks around acting the part of your typical tourist. La Pucelle is jumping from rooftop to rooftop doing a patrol of the area. She not expecting any exciting tonight but she spots a helicopter hovering in the disatnce. "What's that?", she wonders outloud then see a person jump out of helicopter then climb into a open window! "I'm sure that person is up to no good!", she get close to see what the would be thief is up to. Hisako isn't exactly hopping roofs tonight; she's taking a turn on patrol for the Titans, but she's doing so at ground level. Still, things like a helicopter overhead - when there's no real reason for a helicopter to be in this part of the city, to her knowledge - get her to stop and look up, and when you add in a grapnel like Batman's or the passing sight of La Pucelle heading in that direction, Hisako pulls over, parks the motorcycle and sets its security, and armors up briefly, to benefit from the strength boost as she leaps up, plus a couple of wall jumps, to reach roof height. "La Pucelle?" she calls out quietly ... then makes her own leap from one rooftop to the next, catching up with the magical girl as best she can - and de-armoring again once she's on the right roof. She might have been spotted already, though. Once inside, the figure unslings their rifle. The place is quiet, which is good, but there's likely security crawling through the building, which is bad. First target, server room. They skulk along the hallways, keeping to the darkened rooms and for now, away from security. Once things are likely going to go loud, they're going very loud very quick. Batman swings in through the opened window the figure entered, landing softly inside with ninja-like silence, he slinks through the shadows after his prey.... La Pucelle waves to Hisako when she get on the roof. "Oh hey!", she points at the nearby building with a castle on top of it. "I saw someone climb into that building throught a open window. Should we go in after them or wait till they come back out?" Muradin continues being an obnoxious tourist. He grabs a halberd from one of the suits of armor and swings it around. "Oi! Ye call this skinny stick a weapon!? It ain't even mithril!" Of course, being from Azeroth, if a weapon doesn't look like its half sword and half refrigerator then its nothing but a tooth pick. Hisako frowns a bit, "Probably better go in ..." She hears something of Muradin's voice, which makes her frown deepen. "Gonna be interesting making that jump ... how do magical girls make it look so easy?" She backs up a bit, her psionic exo-armor flaring into life again, just big enough for not just the strength boost - which she'll need for the jump - but for the protection at the other end ... even if she has to de-power to make it through the window without enlarging it. Owen frowns slightly at his employer. "I still say that we might be a bit light on security in the area, sir. Especially with the... nature of many individuals here. It's a risk we don't need." Xanatos raises an eyebrow almost over dramatically at his assistant. "And what do you propose we have in addition, Owen? We already have it up here in the castle, the highest security we have here. It's surrounded by pressure sensitive floor panels set automatically to activate the Steel Clan. Should we be hiring local superheroes and martial artists, then? Sometimes, low profile can be the better defence."" Meanwhile, on the bottom floor, one of the guards approaches Muradin. "All right there, buddy, put down the decoration peice..." La Pucelle smiles at Hisako and runs and leaps almost flying across the air and jumps through the open window and landing perfectly in the room. "What was soo cool!" Well, it was inevitable that Muradin was gonna draw the attention of some guards. "Aye, aye, donna get yer knickers all twisted, lad." He scoffs and looks at the halberd. "Hm, wait, ye main to tell me this isn't even real steel." He tightens the grip and sure enough ITS FAKE! "Blood and ashes, lad. Do ye blokes need a weaponsmith by any chance? I could give ye a good deal." Batman continues to track the mystry figure through the dark hallways above, keeping to the shadows of course; he wants to know what this figure is after without spooking him / her. YET> Xanatos' cell phone rings, causing him to hold up a hand to Owen as he picks it up. "Yes? What? WHAT? A window on the 19th floor is open?! Review the footage of that window immediately! And fire whoever it was that left that window open!" He hangs up and puts the cell phone back into his pocket again, then looks at Owen again, whose expression hasn't changed at all. "...Don't give me that look. Just head to our project's room and be ready for anything. I'm going to slip into something more comfortable." Hisako gives La Pucelle a quizzical look after getting back to her feet, "Thought you'd seen me using my power before ... ?" She's keeping her voice hushed now, though, to avoid drawing any attention. At least her uniform is mostly dark colors, pretty good for sneaking around when she *isn't* surrounded by brightly colored psionic energy. She listens for a moment, determining Muradin's not really the one they're looking for, and tries to tiptoe away, staying close to the inside wall. She really has no idea what the security systems are like in here, but it didn't sound like Muradin is the original intruder they're looking for ... whoever snuck into a building like this is probably NOT doing so just to offer a sales pitch. Fast? Seems like this figure is just a few steps faster than those inside. Wherever they're going they don't seem to know they're being followed, at least not yet. Security's none the wiser, but it won't be long. A terminal on the floor is all they need to get into the network, one slip up here and things go haywire. Data transfer initialized... Then the prototype room. Batman steps out of the shadows at the point. "Working late?" he asks, his deep voice a threatm his black eyes glaring and his black cape a living shadow behind him. "Do us both a favor; surreender...NOW!" A situation like this would probably be overlooked by people on the street, especially that of the two girls leaping through the open window high above. To the Platinum Paragon known as Supreme, however, the situation is all too clear. A quick sweep of the building with the X-Ray power of his Vision Supreme confirms the situation. . o O (Great Galaxies! I'm not sure what's going on down there, but, whatever it is that building is built with sound-baffling equipment that stunts even my hearing! With girls that young getting involved I can't simply sit this out!) Dropping out of the sky in a white and red blur, the Silver Sentinel shoots through the open window in the blink of an eye, seeming to just suddenly appear in front of Hisako and La Pucelle with a gust of wind. "I'm sorry to interrupt the field drip, ladies, but, I think I need to be filled in on just what's going on here. If you don't mind?" He folds his arms over his chest, raising one eyebrow at the pair in a curious, quizical fashion. The security guard with Muradin sighs and facepalms. "Look, buddy, I'm just a guard here! And you're not supposed to be here now, it's after hours! If you want a contract, you're gonna have to make an appointment like everyone else. Come on, buddy, let's get you back outside..." He tries to guide Muradin out by putting his hand on Muradin's arm, though in the process, some chatter over his radio can be heard about a window needing to be closed and more security needed upstairs. With that heard, instead of just gently guiding muradin along, he instead pulls out a tazer and tries to zap the dwarf! "Oh alright, alright, fair enough." Muradin is a typical lawful good dwarf. If he's trespassing that is legitimately his bad and should comply with the guard who's leading him away. He puts the halberd back where it belongs and turns around to be escorted out. That said, he's not about to give up on his sale pitch and looks over his shoulder to glance at the guard. "Ey mate, before I leave ye got this place phone card or somethin--" And that's when he sees the tazer coming his way. Lawful Good doesn't mean Lawful Stupid. Muradin isn't about to let himself be tazed for no reason, even if it would do little more than tickle him. He slaps the tazer out of the guard's hand and proceeds to punch him right in the stomach with such strength that it'll send the guard flying through several rooms. Muradin is careful that he sends him through doors rather than walls though- he doesn't want to kill the guy, but getting punched by a Mountain King should learn him something good nonetheless. "Really? That never works, you do realize." Data 98... 99... Done. "Doesn't matter. You're not stopping me." Once the data transfer is complete they abandon the console. And this is where things start to go loud. They let loose a burst of gunfire, knowing the the caped crusader wasn't in much if any danger. And using the chance to bolt for the door. Well, seems like the plan's going to have to go a little quicker. The figure speeds off to the 20th floor and to the prototype room... La Pucelle looks at Hisako the points at Supreme. "Oh that was so cool! Are you one of those western superheroes I've heard some much about??", she squeeing too much right now to answers Supreme question. Hisako leaps in surprise when Supreme swoops in to interpose himself in front of the two girls; somehow she manages not to yelp in her startlement. "We're trying to figure that out myself ... Batman runs after the fleeing figure, drawing a batarang as he goes. Prototype room. That's not good. Hisako leaps in surprise when Supreme swoops in to interpose himself in front of the two girls; somehow she manages not to yelp in her startlement. "We're trying to figure that out ourselves ..." She sideglances at La Pucelle; technically, Hisako herself is a 'Western superhero' - but they can discuss that later, she heard something further ahead, and she sees that figure bolting as well. "Let's move!!" she says to both Supreme and La Pucelle, and tries to sprint in pursuit of the fleeing intruder/thief/whatever he is. Batman is just a bit ahead of her ... she's not going to object to a joint effort, of course. The guard is in fact punched a fair distance by the dwarf! He barely manages to keep his consciousness long enough to call on his radio, "Found... intruder... lower floor... short guy." That's all he manages to say before he finally just slumps over. It doesn't take long after that for alarms to start blaring throughout the building. Upstairs in the room with the prototype, Owen merely raises an eyebrow as he calmly walks over to a control panal on the wall, where he starts inputting commands. "Sir, I'm taking the liberty of activating the Steel Clan and resisting the urge to say 'I told you so.'" He says into his own radio. Yes, things are starting to get all kinds of chaotic. "Hahaha! Something like that, young lady. I'll fill you in later!" Supreme answers with a good-natured smile just before the report of gunfire catches his attention. "...!" He spins towards the hallway, peering through some of the intervening walls with his X-Ray Vision just in time to catch sight of the armed fugitive heading up the stairs with a black-cloaked figure in hot pursuit. "Professor Night?" He says to himself, not recognizing Batman before Hisako sprints ahead of him. "Well, seems you can't keep young people in one place for very long." He says to himself with a small smile before he takes off through the ceiling, smashing straight through the ceiling of the 19th floor and into the 20th in an attempt to cut off the fleeing man's escape. There's something up there, a heavily-shielded room that not even his X-Ray Vision can penetrate. Whatever's in there is likely to be the thief's goal. La Pucelle nods to Hisako and follows her. ..and then the alarms go off. "I hope that wasn't us..", she watches Supreme go through the ceiling. "Now that just cheating! ..and you better pay for that!" Muradin dusts his hands after punching the guard to next week. "Sodding human." He mutters before the alarms start blaring. "Woop, that's me cue. Best get outta here. Morgana's gonna kill me if I get fined for gettin' into another brawl." Although to be fair that last one was the Ork's fault. The Thane of Khaz Modan whirls around to make for the quickest exit, but he figures that with the alarms blaring that place is probably going to be infested with guards. Hm, not that he can't take them out but he doesn't want to make a huge deal out of a misunderstanding! Even though it -was- the guard's fault for trying to taze him. Rubbing his beard, Muradin opts to head for the stairs.. if he can make it to the top he can just jump off the building and land somewhere by the beach. Muradin clears 10 floors with one jump, then clears another 10 floors with another, smashes the locked door down with a kick and walks into the 20 th floor whilst looking around. "Huh, wot tha' sod is going on 'ere?" Looks like he's not the only intruder tonight. Well, things are certainly heating up. The alarm going off wasn't what was expected to happen... Not this early. But then again, it's hard to expect things like Batman on your trail. Still, one out of two might just be enough. Aaand a dwarf is kicking in the door. Fun. The figure seems rather unpurterbed by this development, instead, bypassing any kind of lockpicking with a rather swift charge of explosives from under their jacket. Blowing the door off the room... Just a gate? This is it? Batman calculates where the beck of the head of the intruder should be and slings a batarang at that spot as he dives forward through the exploded door! "I warned yo," he growls, "Don't make this hard on yourself!" Inside, in front of the prototype, stands a lone man in a business suit and glasses. "You're not authorised to be here," he says, then taps a button on a remote. All around the room, eyes light up as the robot gargoyles activate in a semicircle around the room. Each lifts its right arm, the lasers popping out, clearly getting ready to fire already. Hisako comes up behind Batman - and almost literally skids to a halt at the sight of the robotic gargoyles with their arms raised and laser cannons readied. "Uhhh ... okay, let me know if you need some extra help on this," she says - it really looks like between Batman, the bots, and the executive assistant, the thief is PRETTY well handled. Hisako's going to try and edge back out the door; she can at least help make sure the thief isn't going to get away. And she didn't look the like of the robogoyles' weapons ... or maybe, the robogoyles as a whole. Batman says, "I'm chasing an intruder. Power those things down." La Pucelle quickly catches up with Hisako she sees Batman and the gargoyles robots. She looks to Hisako. "So umm who is chasing who here?" Whoever's trying to make this theft is fast, faster than Supreme anticipated as she manages to blow open the door to the prototype room just a split second after he's come up through the floor. Batman's batarang is sent sailing towards the would-be thief just as the smoke clears and the business-suited man states matter-of-factly that nobody's authorized to be there. Crimson-Eyed Robot Gargoyles beginning to aim their weapons one by one at the shadowed thief. "I'll have to agree with my Masked Friend here, Mister." Supreme says as he floats through the blown doorway, arms crossed over his chest, "Nobody needs to make things any messier than they already are, there are laws in place that deal with excessive force." He lets his blue eyes sweep across the ranks of Steel Gargoyles, "Laser-armed Robot Gargoyles are definitely a little above the kind of force used for theft." Against his better judgment Muradin walks towards where he's seeing all the people running towards to. Thieves, robots, masked super heroes and magical girls.. the dwarf doesn't know what's going on! He's just trying to get out of the building! "Ey mates, can any of ye point me towards the exit?" Muradin peeks into room where everyone's gathered and notices the robotic gargoyles. "Oh, uh.. I see yer busy, I'll leave ye to that then.." Batman looks a bit annoyed at the sudden throng behind him, and especially Supreme. "Typical." he says, matter of factly, looking to the sheer destruction of yet another Superman pretender. 'I don't think you're in a postion to comment on excessive force." Owen raises an eyebrow slightly. "Very well. If you turn around immediately and leave under the custody of these... 'heroes' then we shall have no need for violence. But I cannot allow you to take one step further into this room." It's clear he's only adressing the initial intruder with this threat. "Another couple seconds and a life might have been lost." Supreme points out in regards to Batman's comment on his 'express elevator' method of getting up a floor. "I wouldn't worry too much, I'll have it fixed before we leave." Batman grumbles. Again, typical. He turns to the intruder. "I'll (not we!) we'll take you into the proper authorities. You may not have that luxury otherwise. La Pucelle blinks. "Did he just jump out the window? We're 20 stories up! I say something like no one could have survived that! But I know better.. Well, kind of trapped between a rock and a hard place here... The robots aren't going to be the problem one would think they are, but... Well, thankfully they have a second charge. Not one they intended to use, but at this point... "Catch." 3... 2... 1... Poof! That's why it was supposed to go unused. Nothing more than a massive cloud of smoke fills the room and hallway, while the masked thief sets about taking out the robotic guards. This isn't how it was supposed to happen, but no battleplan ever survives the enemy, much less the enemy of your enemy. Batman goes into action, diving in through the smoke, his lenses helping define the thief! He trikes out, trying to put the intruder down with a quick chop to the shoulder. "bad choice," he mutters; even if he slips past the drak knight, there's plenty more lurking as well. And then into the smoke, red flashes abound as the robot gargoyles open fire! While they're trying to track their initial target, the chaos now ensuing certainly doesn't help with their aim, and the shots fly all across the room as they attempt to track their target. The sudden bloom of smoke prompts Hisako to armor back up, her armor shining bright orange (rather than its usual yellow) as she intensifies it to try and keep the smoke out. Not that it improves her visibility much, but she won't be coughing on it. Muradin's abrupt departure and La Pucelle's comment on same go without an answer from the young X-Man. "Do you need any help in the--- EEP!!" Lasers. THAT keeps her from actually charging in to assist; she's just hoping they aren't potent enough to go through the wall next to the door. La Pucelle may be a magical girl but even she can get blined by smoke! Then then shot fly everywhere! She just drop to the ground to avoid the fire. Too chaotic at the moment to do anything else. Supreme knew that was going to happen the moment that smoke bomb dropped. Those robots are programmed to open fire at the slightest hostilities no doubt and their aim is horribly off. "Keep away from the lasers! Handle the thief if you can!" He calls out to Batman, La Pucelle and Hisako as he interposes himself between the bulk of the machines and the group before spreading his crimson cape out with his arms to act as a living shield to the others. The lasers might not be lethal, but he's not going to just stand there and let innocents get zapped on his watch. The thief, seems to be prepared for this as well. Thermal vision stops them from being blinded by their own smoke, and the mask helps. Avoid the bat... Take a laser to the arm. Damn. Well, so much for getting out unscathed. And with the persistent Bat on their heels, it's not likely to get any easier to avoid anything. But adding to the chaos the click and a loud tearing, followed by a bright light from the gateway. "Oh, come ON." can be heard, as the gunfire picks up, and an alien screeching can be heard from several new entrants to the room. Batman says, "Get down!" to the thief, he tries to tackle him / her and hopes his cape will keep both of them from being hurt by the laser strike!" Owen turns and looks back at the prototype, keying his radio once again. "Sir. It seems there's a problem with the prototype. I once again am going to have to suggest we cancel this project." How the heck can he be so calm through all this chaos?! He does, however, step to the side and duck down. La Pucelle looks up at the well the only thing you can call them are aliens. "We come in peace?", she asks getting back up an taking out her massive sword and getting in a combat stance ready for battle but hoping it doens't happen. Supreme lifts one arm up briefly to shield his eyes from the brilliant light flaring from the gateway, his eyes widening at the creatures that step through the portal. "Great Ganymede!" . o O (That portal, it's similar to the Golden Gate in the Citadel Supreme that leads to the Supremacy. What kind of prototype was this company working on? Something to breach dimensional barriers?) Hisako sucks in a breath as she hears the tearing noise and the alien screeching, and finally charges around Supreme and into the 'prototype' room. She's moving as evasively as she can, twisting and dodging to avoid any lasers that might come her way, but her first priority is to punch the aliens - and if she can punch them back through the portal, she's going to do EXACTLY that. Good thing her armor gives her super-strength ... although maybe not so good for the aliens .... Batman yells, 'You...Super...whoever you are, I'm betting you have super breath....blow those things back through the portal! Supreme is about to move forward to do just that when Hisako pushes in front of him with the lasers from the Gargoyle Steel Legion still blazing. "NO!" He bursts forwards at Speed Supreme and shoves Hisako back forcefully, "That armor of yours is on a wavelength those lasers will cut right through!" He says chidingly to the Japanese girl before turning towards the portal. "I'll handle this!" He takes in a deep breath, filling his chest with a huge amount of air and then forcing it out again in a powerful Gust Supreme, hurricane force winds being expelled from his lungs to blow the Timesplitters back through the portal before they can get a beachhead in this dimension. Meanwhile, our rather unlucky thief is now more focused on the alien threat in front of them than the lasers. Much like the bots, there's no reason not to shoot to kill, as these things seem rather intent on doing the same to anything not them in the room as well. The masked thief is speedily trying to reload while ducking almost everything flying at them, though th lasers aren't the only thing they've been tagged with. Claw marks can be seen on their pants and where the wound would be seems to be scratched gunmetal grey metal chassis. Now more than ever seems to be the right time to retreat. Bad, bad bad BAD. THIS was not supposed to happen... Valuable tech their suited arse. Hisako lets out a rather indignant yelp as Supreme pushes her back behind him when she was TRYING to help - some hero she is if she lets other (more damage-resistant) people do all the dangerous work ... but she can't really do much, even if he's wrong about exactly what her vulnerability was. Not that she's going to correct him - she's not THAT stupid. Batman decides the things coming through the portal are the worse threat; he powers up and explosive Batarang and readies to hurl it into the vortex, once Superman-X, captain Super or who ever he is manages to blow them back into it....if he does. Over Owen's radio, Xanato's voice can be heard, "Owen, if things are as bad in there as the sensors I'm getting from here are telling me, then I think you just might be right about this one. I'm going to pull the plug from here in a permanent manner. I think, in the end, this is a failed endevour." With the radio message over, Owen suddenly gets up and starts running for the door. Meanwhile, the robots are repositioning themselves, moving towards the door but aiming back more at the newly arrived... things with their weapons rather than the would-be theif, now. The unfortunate thing about these aliens is their propensity to be rather difficult to rid one's timeline of. As they come through the portal some vanish into the ether, some end up dead from the thief's efforts to escape, and those that arn't end up being blown back into the tear by Supreme. The unlucky heister bolts past the crew of heroes, in a bid to escape before things got worse... And then runs by again, matching speed with the first. Oops? The gate itself crumbles from the energy starts to overflow, with the final explosive shutting it down for good. This only leaves the matter of the mess of dead aliens and the fading trail of the thief who caused the issue in the first place. Or perhaps thieves. With everything that happened, nothing's quite the same in that room. Might want to take it up with the now repaired door and hole in the wall. La Pucelle gets up and looks around. "boy they really do smell bad the aliens I mean.",she sighs to herself she wasn't able to anything cool.. Supreme lifts his arm up his eyes widening as the energy in the portal builds up. "DOWN! EVERYONE!" He spins about and tries to practically shove La Pucelle and Hisako back into the hallway while using the whole of his 6'5" bulk as a living shield against the resulting explosion. Hisako might have some kind of force field and La Pucelle might be some kind of magical girl but neither of them are wholly invulnerable and what's more they're barely children as far as he's concerned. He can't just stand there and have their injuries on his conscience. Well, it's not like Hisako was in the room at that point, thanks very much to Supreme for trying so very, very hard to keep *her* out of harm's way. But she's armored up nonetheless - and she's more than willing to plant herself as an extra shield for La Pucelle, at least until the pyrotechnics abate. "What'd you say your codename was, again?" she asks Supreme as she de-armors, now that the excitement is over. "And do you even *have* other superheroes where you're from, or are you this bad about working with them too?" Red Steel Clan Robot steps down the hallway and looks down at those that just ran out of the room to evade the self distruct. "All right, Owen," it says in Xanatos' voice. "I suppose you do finally get to say you told me so. As for the rest of you... You're trespassing. Get out." Once all the smoke has cleared, Supreme turns back towards the doorway, brushing off some of the soot and metal debris from his suit. "It's Supreme, miss." He answers openly, "And there are plenty of heroes where I come from." He casts a glance at the crimson-armored Gargoyle Suit and the voice behind it. . o O (Well, seems they're not all robots.) Then he focuses his attention back towards Hisako, "It's just that I have a code against allowing innocent people to get hurt if I can help it." He gives her a long look, "That includes minors, no matter what powers they might have, especially if they're taking risks that are bound to get them hurt." Then he gazes back at Xanatos, "We'll be on our way, just as soon as I keep a promise to someone." With that he's gone in a blur, seeming to be nothing but several gusts of air billowing up and down the hallway as he fixes the ceiling he crashed through earlier. (He *did* tell Batman he'd fix it, after all.) The thief, or thieves, try to hail their chopper, to make the last leg of their escape, even with the caped crusader on their tail. Now, to the confusion of the pilot, they both end up shouting slightly different orders, but the desination is the same... Or would be if the thieves weren't at each other's throats by takeoff. Or what would be takeoff, if there wasn't an alien tearing apart the rotors. As for the building itself, the hole that Supreme made is fixed, but they might want to look at patching the hole in the wall the thief came through... Or was that the door they blew down? Hisako looks decidedly more unhappy. "I'll be on my way too," she says to the red 'robot,' "but before I leave, I have one last question. Did that thief manage to get anything that us meddling superhero types should be watching out for, out in the city, or beyond it? Whether it's something that we should try to recover and return, or that we should just destroy so it's not out there in the wrong hands?" | |
Enable comment auto-refresher