[United] Beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Here

Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas!
Date of Scene: 04 December 2017
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: Summary needed
Cast of Characters: Superman, Frankenstein, Slimer, Supergirl, Robin (Wayne), Power Boy, Stardust

Superman has posed:
Millenium Park, Metropolis' answer to Central Park, is decked out for the Holiday already. Lights and garland and similar are strung around lampposts, and run along the fences. Several trees, scattered through the park, have been decorated for the holiday by volunteers or city workers, and are already lit and brilliant. The ice skating rink in the middle of the park is the sight of the big tree, though. The rink is filled with happy couples, laughing families, and those skating solo. Music plays over the loud speakers, ringing in the Holiday with classic cheer.

There are food vendors, providing food from all over the world, along with local favorites, and various stalls are selling all sorts of things as well, as if it were a bit of a craft fair as well. Some carnival games are setup in one corner of the event, and the whole thing is packed with people for it. Metropolis PD, along with normal security, keep order. All-in-all, it is a very nice event.

The main tree is almost twenty feet tall, and covered in unlit lights, garland and decorations. A podium is setup, where the mayor and other important individuals can give out awards and give speeches. Supposedly Superman is going to be here to flick the switch, which has plenty of locals very excited!

Superman has posed:
There is snow on the hills and along the paths, and there is a very faint snowfall. Just enough to add to the mood, and to require some sort of warm clothing to most.

Superman has posed:
And...it's evening. The sun has set, but only by an hour or so.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein saw a recent commercial that made him feel safe to go out in Public. People would just think it a gimmic to go look for the tree and he does indeed have two christmas tree lights bolted onto the side of his neck just like the commercial.

Slimer has posed:
    How exciting! Lights, creativity, smiling faces, and, more important than anything: FOOD. There's delicious smells everywhere. And plenty of bright colors and items to distract from anyone that particularly needs odd things to blend in with.

    The eyes on a large striped (or is that plaid?) pink and white panda toy move, rotating as if to absorb the sight of the large tree, and the booths with food nearby.

     And so it is, a mostly translucent, green ghostly shape has surfaced from below a carnival game, and hid amoung the stuffed animals.

    But, then the panda's eyes go vacant, only a smear of green liquid left behind. Well, only that -- Until the stuffed animal rolls out of the carnival game sideways. And then sort of drags across towards the pretzel cart next to it. Drag-flop. Nothing to see here. Drag-flop. It's not acting possessed-- just like a fluffy plaid shield against suspicion. Shhhhh.

Supergirl has posed:
It's always a good thing when capes make themselves available to the public for this or that and not just fighting crime. To that end, Supergirl is at a booth with Power Boy. She has a little elf hat in red and blue on her head as well as her uniform. Sitting in a chair meant for little kids, she's working with a table full of tykes to make little ornaments to add to the massive tree before Superman turns on the lights. She shows a pipe cleaner and clothes pin reindeer to Power Boy with it's fuzzy ball red nose with a smile. "Sorry I didn't warn you we'd be on ornament detail." She offers cheerfully. "At least I didn't volunteer us for caroling."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian Wayne had a car brought around to Millenium Park, extracting himself from the car, dressed in a green shirt, black tie, and black overcoat. The young heir had smiled and taken pictures for the press. Of course he had been in charge of making some appearances on behalf of the Wayne Foundation, and as the public knew, he was a pretty upstanding young man. He eventually made his way to the midway, checking out the activities. Most of it was saccharine to Damian, but still he covered with his guise. Was that a pink panda? A quick look back, and it wasn't there. "What the..."

Power Boy has posed:
    Shaking his be-antlered head, Power Boy seems to be amused. It is hard to be upset with all the pure joy in the air and emanating from kids. "Now that is a reindeer. A truly superior reindeer ornament I have never seen!" Power Boy compliments the kid. He has felt antlers on a headband on his head, and some sleighbells wrapped around his arms. The little Elf on a Shelf guy is hanging out of the window cut into his outfit.
    He's an empath. The kids are happy, and that is hard to ignore. More over, he is actually happy. "Make sure to leave carrots out for the reindeer!" he quickly looks over at Supergirl, as if not sure that is the right tradition.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein gets a few people thinking he IS the actor for the commercials and signs a few autographs though people looked annoyed when he signs it "Frankenstein" as he lopes around, in the less human guise. Withouth the christmas lights he would look truly frightening.

Stardust has posed:
For those in the superheroing business, there is a ranking. At the top sit people like Superman. Front-page capes, invited to switch on the lights. Celebrated, recognized wherever they go, the rock stars of the cape world. Perhaps a notch down, public appearances is still very much part of the business, be it manning a booth getting dramatically out of a car for the press. Events like this might almost be a public duty to them. It's not like they can really let their hair down.

  Stardust sits a good few rungs below on the ladder. A decent step up from the ski-mask and diving suit wannabees who spend more time in ambulances than actually saving people. She's actually got superpowers and stuff! She fights crime, and usually wins. She even once kicked Darkseid in the nuts. You'd probably have to be a superhero geek who spends more time than is healthy on capewatch.com or superpedia.org to know her by sight though. Thus she is free to relax. Sitting casually on the top of a tree (not THE tree) that shouldn't be able to take her weight, dressed in a superheroing costume that's close enough to all-white to blend in rather with the snow.

Stardust watches the crowds, idly sipping at a cup of hot cocoa. Not looking for trouble, just here to enjoy a bit of christmas spirit. However the business never quite lets you relax, and her eyes fall on a stuffed panda, that appears to have been possessed. She thinks briefly about investigating, but decides that finishing her cocoa is more important for now. After all, this is Metropolis. Weird stuff happens all the time.

Superman has posed:
    The fun event continues. Music plays, people skate, laugh and eat. Vendors sell stuff, and people partake. Snow falls gently, at pretty much the perfect pace. No flurries, no heavy downfall. Just a faint flutter of white. The mayor arrives, and pauses with his entourage long enough to greet Damian Wayne, and briefly lament his father not being able to make the event (But to tell him to personally thank him for generous donations that are often incoming, even outside of Gotham!)

    The mayor and the other important bigwigs make their way up to the tree, and begin to prepare for speeches and such. News crews walk about, filming and interviewing people!

Supergirl has posed:
"The reindeer come inside too?" Supergirl asks, looking alarmed. She glances to the little girl on her left with pipecleaners stuck to her hands. "Is that true? I should make sure I have reindeer treats." The alien heroine says as the girl giggles heartily. "No, Santa takes them to the reindeer." The little girl explains very matter of fact and rolls her eyes. Lifting her hands, Supergirl holds them together in front of herself. "Oh, sorry, sorry. Santa takes them to the reindeer. That makes a lot more sense than figuring out how all those reindeer got in my house." She nods and the kids laugh. A few chime in with other Christmas facts, suddenly determined to tell Supergirl and Power Boy all about the holiday and being nice and not naughty. Her attention is briefly diverted by Frankenstein and she tilts her head, leaning to watch him go by.

Slimer has posed:
    Drag flop.
    Drag flop.

    Oh for heavens sake, this is FAR and the stuffed thing is stuck on something. Spindly green hands reach out from around the bear to tug-tug at the caught foot. Tug.... ARRRRGH. Pretzels are needed, come LOOSE --- Rip. Oh.

    The one-legged panda now rolls over again, spilling bits of fluff out. A child trots over to look at the foot, then gets close to the bear, looks behind it.

        "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Annnnnd so much for holiday cheer, because THAT is a very very real terrified child-scream. You'd think the child was getting kidnapped. With a similarly awful howling squawk, the green ghost bolts into the inside of the pretzel cart, leaving a splash of green goop splattering down the side of entry.

    And a bit more screaming, which makes more people look. The panda bear, on cue, loses a fight with gravity and falls on its smeared green-splashed face, directly at the child's feet, who takes that as if it were a bloody murder, pointing at it. Apparently this child is afraid of one-legged pandas; sad state of affairs.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein has a pretty good guess the doll is possessed. But he is mainly keeping an eye on it for now, and waiting for green vomit to come from peoples mouths or the like. The squawk also gets his attention. The child, screaming makes him cringe and look around for tiki torches

Power Boy has posed:
    He should be paying attention. He should be eyeballing potential threats. he should be trying to puzzle out things. Power Boy isn't.
    He never had a childhood. These kids with their stories? It hurts, but in the best possible way. This must be why Superman does what he does. He is asking questions, and asking about Santa Claus. He is absolutely enraptured by it. "So, is Santa Claus faster than me? Is he faster than Superman?" No one knows who Power Boy is. Superman and Santa Claus though? Mixed opinions there. Power Boy does a little math. "I think that unless Supergirl, Superwoman, Supergirl, Superboy, Power Girl, and maybe Power Boy." Lots of blinks there. Who is Power Boy.
    He doesn't mind. "I think Santa Claus is faster!" Some of the children are aghast. Most of them agree though. Superman is slower than Santa Claus! But not by much!

Stardust has posed:
Wierd stuff is fine, but screams not so much. With a sigh, Stardust makes an attempt to balance her cup of cocoa in the branches of the tree, but it doesn't want to stay there. With a shrug of her shoulders, she takes to the air still holding it, and swoops over to land next to the possessed panda. "Okay folks, back off a bit please," she calls out to the crowd. "Everything's good, just give the panda some space. Nice costume!" this last comment is directed at Frankenstein.

  Taking a few steps forwards, Stardust peers down at the stuffed toy, and gives it a prod with her foot. "It's covered in goop," she comments to nobody in particular. She prods it again, but devoid of its animating spook, Slimer having made a beeline for the pretzel cart, it doesn't react. She takes a thoughtful sip of her cocoa. She looks around, scanning the crowd thoughtfully, before her eyes return to the ravaged plushie. "Uh. Nobody touch the goop?" she suggests, rather lost for an explanation.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein gives a thumbs up and a kind of grarararanks. Like Scooby Doo in a blender. He nods. Ectoplasm, definitely a ghost. He tries to say "liasraramless." It likely doesn't come out well.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian smiles and shakes the mayor's hand of course. He knew where his father was, but the cover was that he was in Europe for WayneTech business. The usual, but for Damian, he kept smiling and being the face he needed to be for the Foundation.

  He passes to the kid's activities, and gives a laugh at Supergirl and Power Boy's descriptions of Christmas. "Oh, faster than the Flash for sure. At least, you know all those milk and cookies help him get it all done that night. And the reindeer totally love the carrots you leave out for them."

Superman has posed:
    The mayor's bodyguards move to step in the way when there is a scream, and they scan the event. When they see a costumed hero land to handle it, though, they go back to their speech planning and going over the specifics. The snow begins to fall a little heavier. Just a bit.

Slimer has posed:
    Incidentally, Slimer can't just 'hide' in a pretzel cart. Because there's pretzels. In the Pretzel cart. So, the panda is indeed long forgotten, and the pretzels are under consumption. Perhaps fortunately (or not fortunately?) the vendor of pretzels is no doubt distracted by Stardust arriving, and has not opened the cart's compartment recently.

    The panda just lays there. Well, most of it does. That foot is still stuck back on the edge of a metal sheet piece that's part of the concrete making up the edge of a sidewalk boarder.

    The child gets wisked away by a guardian, who is embarrassed. Crisis averted?

Supergirl has posed:
"Damian Wayne. Wow!" Supergirl smiles and looks to the table of kids. "We're making ornaments to decorate the tree before it gets lit." She explains and offers him a clothes pin. "I bet the Flash thinks he's faster than Santa." She jokes, the former Titan and now Justice League member pauses to help a little boy hold the red fuzzball nose in place and nods to Power Boy. "This is my friend, Power Boy. He's like me." She explains and looks to the scream, relaxing as soon as she seems Colette there. She calls out to her as she works, offering the other heroine a bright smile while she glues reindeer noses.

Power Boy has posed:
    "No one is like her." Power Boy responds to Damian. He offers his hand. "Mr. Wayne." He has a firm grip, but he'll likely be more impressed by the young man's. He busies his other hand helping a google eye get attached to a clothes pin.
    "Why do they call it a google eye?" he asks the table, and the other two more adult type folks around. "We... had holidays where I am from, but they were only for the upper folks, as a rule. More of a half a day of work, or something. Maybe a little extra food. Why eat Goose for--" The kids are staring. Power Boy just shakes his antlers, and little bells ring. There. happy kids.

Stardust has posed:
"Liasraramless," Stardust repeats to Frankenstein. "Yeah. My thoughts precisely." She eyes the panicked child with the monopodal panda phobia being marched away by an embarrassed guardian, thinks for a moment, then warily picks the panda up by an ungooped portion. "I'll just rush him to the panda clinic," she explains to the watching crowd. "They'll sew that leg right back on, no problems. And give him a good wash." With that she takes off in a swirl of air and snowflakes, to find an out of the way rooftop to dump it on.

Returning moments later, Stardust drops down by the booth to return Supergirl's greeting with a cheery "Heya! Long time and all that. How's stuff? Hi Mister Wayne. Yeah, I'm with you. Even the Flash couldn't deliver gifts to every house on the planet in one night. Especially while eating a half billion cookies and drinking a small ocean of milk." Her eyes remain glued to the area around the pretzel vendor, site of the previous panda shenanigans, watching for anything more out of the ordinary.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein does not go chasing waterfalls and sticks to the tree that he's used to. He gives a thumbs up as Colette obtains the new panda. He looks at the tree and enjoys it very much. He buys a pretzel.

Slimer has posed:
    The yelling is so unnecessary. When the vendor gets a new customer, Frankenstein, still no crisis--- plenty of the pretzels are still in the top. So there's some time. But after a little while - a few more people --, the vendor does open the cabinets, bending down... and gets a blast of green ectoplasm directly in the face, sitting down backwards and sputtering from it, unable to yell properly, confused, with a face of slime.

    Cautiously a green hand fumbles up and daintily plucks the pretzels in the upper area from the racks on display. No Pretzel Left Behind. Pluck pluck pluck -- and they're drawn down. And eaten. Then the hand reappears to check the emptry racks for any more, feeling around. It's subtle, but said little green ghostly hand does qualify as 'out of the ordinary' for Stardust's perspective, likely.

Superman has posed:
    Not everyone wants the citizens of Metropolis to have a Holly, Holly Christmas. The snow begins to fall a teeny bit harder. Every five or ten minutes it grows a bit thicker. A bit colder. It isn't an iced wasteland, but it is getting chillier. The mayor cups his hands over his mouth to warm them, before an assistant offers him some gloves. "Where's Superman?," he grumbles to an advisor, who shrugs. They glance skyward, shielding their eyes from the snow. "This snow better let up," he grunts. "Weatherman said it should have stopped by now, but when are those things right, huh?"

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian chuckles, joining in with the ornament making. "Of course he would." A bit of glue, a red pompom and pipe cleaners, and he's made a decent looking Rudolph. The green eyed teen looks to the little kid next to him, comparing the two. "I dunno. I think you did better than I did."

  A quick hand given to shake. While his grip is firm, it doesn't betray who he is. "Power Boy, well, that's quite a name. I used to ask the same thing. It's a colloquialism for the way the pupils just shake in the..." He looks around and notices the kids kind of staring. He quickly puts a pair on his eyelids, making a goofy face. Kids laugh again, smiles on their faces (missing baby teeth and all.)

  Damian bundles himself up a bit more, adjusting his long black scarf. "I guess we're going to have a good cold winter this year."

Supergirl has posed:
Eying the snow coming down, Supergirl's brows knit together for a moment and she gently pats the shoulder of the kid she was helping before rising and brushing her skirt into place and chuckling at the assessment of the Flash. "It's hard to be faster than Santa I guess." She says and shakes her hair off her shoulders before walking over to Colette. "Yeah, since the museum heist. That was some brawl huh? That cocoa smells great, did you get it here?" She asks and looks to Power Boy and Damian with a smile seeing them make the children laugh before looking to Colette again. "What was with the panda huh? Some animal try to eat a stuffed animal maybe?"

Power Boy has posed:
    "Getting a little too cold for the kids." Power Boy says. He nods at Damian. "I would have picked something a little more low key. We never get to pick our names, right?" He look about, a little concerned. "Is the rapid temperature change normal?" he asks. Alarm is too strong a term.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein doesn't feel the cold at all. He simply enjoys the lights and relaxes. He munches another pretzel.

Superman has posed:
    "Ladies and gentlemen! The Christmas Tree ceremony will begin in just a few moments!," comes the announcement over the loud speakers. The snow begins to let up a bit again. So, that's good, right?

Stardust has posed:
Stardust side-eyes Damian as he bundles himself up tighter, and she glances around at the crowd to see similar reactions elsewhere. She becomes aware that people seem to be feeling the cold more than she is, and most of them are rather more wrapped up. Apart from Supergirl, anyway. You probably have to be Kryptonian to wear a skirt in this weather. She wonders idly to herself whether there's such a thing as a not-feeling-the-cold superpower, or if her costume is really well insulated. Yet another thing the so-called mentor that lives in her head hasn't explained to her. With that in mind, Stardust acknowledges Powerboy's comment about names with surprising vehemence. "Tell me about it," she says. "Apparently I inherited the name Stardust, and I get sick of David Bowie jokes."

"There's a cart that-a-way," Stardust replies to Supergirl. "Want me to go get you some while you're on ornament duty? The panda was... I dunno. Possessed probably. It..." she trails away as she glances back in the direction of the panda event and notices the disappearing pretzel trick. "There was goop," she explains thoughtfully. "And there seems to be more of it." She sighs, offers Supergirl the rest of her cocoa, and says "I guess I better go take a closer look," before heading over to the pretzel vendor to find out if he survived the sliming.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein tries to put himself in EXACTLY the same spot as the commercial and dims his lights. He wants to recreate it exactly and is slightly nervous about looming there without the christmas lights on. He looms well.

Supergirl has posed:
"Possessed?" Supergirl asks, intrigued and takes the cocoa, holding it even as she follows Stardust. The announcement gets her attention and she looks towards the stage and then glances around. "Oh? Is my cousin here already? I didn't see him arrive." She muses and scans the crowd for a spectacled nerdy looking reporter no doubt pigging out on Christmas sweets last second. That would be like Clark she figures. Her steps follow Stardust away from the ornaments, distracted in her scan of the crowds.

Slimer has posed:
The pretzel cart vendor is working to clear off his face -- mostly just getting it on his hands and his sleeves. Yuck. He is confused but isn't choking to death, or similar.

     The little ghostly hand continues to probe for any stray tasty bits, and finds a few crumbs and lost pieces, which are picked up. And then the mustard container is nabbed.... followed by more condiments.

Superman has posed:
    The mayor steps up to the podium, and many people turn to watch. Plenty of folks continue playing games, ice skating, or doing whatever it was they were doing, though. "Ladies and gentleman, thank you for coming out tonight. I know it's a bit colder then we were planning!" People murmur agreement. In fact, while the snow slowed, it IS getting steadily colder. What the heck?

    The mayor shuffles his cue cards. "This is the season for giving, and for family. We all celebrate different holidays, from Christmas, to Kwanzaa, to <insert odd alien holiday here>, but our city is a city of togetherness, and of cohesion. Whatever it is we celebrate, it is something we celebrate together." Some cheers. He's a good speech giver! Lots of charisma and such.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein is likely standing in the dark, looking looming and quite scary against the backlight of tree with his own lights on, though he is smiling in a warm friendly way.

Power Boy has posed:
    Offering his hand to Stardust. The antlered and elf-on-shelf in his shirt sporting Power Boy introduces himself. "Power Boy. Pleased to meet you. Stardust?" He thought he heard the name applied to her.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust returns Powerboy's handshake with a "Nice to meet you," and an apologetic "I better go investigate.... seeya later!" as she heads back to the cart. She glances briefly in the direction of the podium as the mayor starts speaking, then gives Supergirl a nudge as she spots Frank again. "See the dude dressed as Frankenstein's Monster?" she asks. "Cool costume, huh?"

Seeing the vendor doesn't seem to be harmed by the sliming, Stardust leaves him to get cleaned up while she investigates the hand. She peers cautiously into the cart, ready to pull back quickly. Harmless or not, she has no desire to be slimed. "Hey! You in there. Covering people with goop is rude. So's eating all their pretzels. Have you got no Christmas spirit? Step /away/ from the tasty, tasty snacks, and no gooping."

Superman has posed:
    "One thing you can all celebrate together is being ROBBED! HAHAHA!," comes a high-pitched cackle from the middle of the crowd. The temperature drops several more degrees in an instance, and a several people toss back the hoods on their jackets (Except for one, who leaves it on!)

    There are several individuals, all now drawing attention. The one who shouted is pale blue, with a pointed nose, and the snow begins to swirl about him and gather like he is summoning it to him. Beside him is a man with an Inuit-styled fur hood, and slitted blue glasses, wielding a big, crackling freeze gun. Between them is a beautiful woman who is pale blue and white, with long, dark blue hair and a black and blue, stylized leotard. "You can call us the COLD MISERS!," shouts the long-nosed man. The others roll their eyes, and do not appear to be on-board with the name. "Now! Everyone toss down their valuables!

    The C-List, winter themed villains don't seem to realise who all is present...and how quickly this is going to be over...

Supergirl has posed:
Supergirl had meant to help Colette but then the temperature drops and even she looks like she might feel chilly. She passes Stardust's cocoa to Damian with a "Here, hold this." and marches towards the c-list villains with all the bravado the S on her chest should command. "Hey!" She calls out and hears Stardust's command to Slimmer. "In case you didn't hear my friend, we're cracking down on a lack of Christmas cheer and robber is definitely up there!" She places her hands on her hips and does the pose. "Now make this easy on yourselves and call it quits while you're ahead."

Slimer has posed:
    There is a little... green ghost inside the cart. It doesn't hide or anything from Stardust. It is shoveling pieces of pretzel and spraying mustard from the bottle into it's face when she opens the door. He just stops where he is, entirely freezing as if she'd just forget he was there, staring at her with big, semi-transparent eyes. And then squeezes the mustard bottle a bit more.

    Thankfully, it seems there's other distractions far more interesting than a 'harmless' little green ghost. He mouths 'What snacks?' at her with his mouth still full. And then turns to peek up over the cart at the Cold Misers. And then at Stardust. And ... seems to cheer her on, waggling the condiment containers at her in a pleased way. "Save day!" The ghost actually says to her. And then brightens. "Help rescue snacks!" he says, indicating himself, and suddenly bolts through the side of the cart; the condiments in hand flop down inside the cart as they are left behind in a smear of green, and the ghost is shooting off to 'save' the contents of the ice cream cart nearby. Not to worry, he's on it.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein gives a thumbs up to the second compliment and then spots the less than intelligent villains. He begins plodding toward them. He has seen the other heroes here so isn't expecting to have to do much but happy to pound the impounded.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian returns Colette's side-eye, still keeping his cover as well as he can. "We're we supposed to get a cold front tonight?" He says, attempting to float a hint to anyone paying attention. But then the Cold Misers make their presence known. "Aww h-" Realizing he is around the children still, Damian continues. "e-double hockey sticks." The youngest Wayne looks to the kids and puts his finger on his mouth. "You know who's gonna make these guys go away, right?"

Stardust has posed:
Pretzel thieves just don't come high on the list of threats. Even ones that slime people. Certainly not compared to a gang of even C-list supervillains. "Okay mister whatever-you-are, change of plan. You're free to goop those guys..." Stardust jerks a thumb in the direction of the Cold Misers. "...As much as you like. No more stealing snacks though."

Swooshing up into the air in a fashion that would only be more dramatic were she to wear a cape, Stardust zooms over the heads of the crowd and comes to a halt floating by Supergirl, backing her up. She tilts her head sideways, staring at the Misers with a look of disbelief. "Really?" she asks them. "You decide on pulling this garbage here? At a nice, fun, festive Christmas event? With Superman the guest of honor? And several other supers hanging around? What on earth is wrong with you?" she pauses a moment, staring at the one in the center. "Apart from your fashion sense. And your choice of team name. You guys don't want to do this the hard way, do you? 'Cos believe me, we don't mind. Either way is easy for us."

Power Boy has posed:
    Pulling in a breath, Power Boy starts as if to make his way over towards the villains, but then he looks down at all the kids around them. He taps into a bit of emotion, and a large hand begins to form behind him. With a practiced hand gesture he lays it down, and shields the children and the nearby adults with a gleaming blue-ish wall of energy. "No one can hurt you behind that, kids. Don't worry, Supergirl has got this sorted!" His knuckles itch, and he feels like a coward, but somewhere along the way, someone taught him the value of human life.

Superman has posed:
    The female member of the Snow Misers(tm) whirls about as Supergirl strikes a superhero pose. "Ha! Supergirl! Perfect!" Ice and cold manifests around her hands, and the infamous Killer Frost lashes out with bolds of chill fired off in her direction! "Just what I wanted for Christmas! Killing a Kryptonian!"

    Captain Cold levels his big gun at the mayor's podium, before he notices the green glob. "IS THAT A GHOST?!," Snart cries out, whirling towards Slimer and firing off a beam of super-frozen whatchamacallit. The leader is stalking towards the podium, as people are herding back and...mostly watching, honestly!

    The leader glances up when Stardust swoops into view. "Your FACE is the hard way!" He then swings an arm, and the snow and ice that had gathered about him launches in her direction.

Slimer has posed:
    Hit by the frost ray from Captain Cold, there is now a flying, very confused and disoriented, icy green ghost blob that goes tumbling through the air from where it was hit off to the side of the podium, and lands in one of the piles of decorations. FWUMP. There was a little cry, a "AHHHHHhhhhhiiiiieee!" from the iced blob. Was it a ghost? Hard to tell. It's in the clump of decorations now. Well, probably is. Slimer is smart enough to stay down, for the moment.

Supergirl has posed:
Supergirl's eyes widen as a blast of ice comes her way. She draws her cape up to absorb the worst of the ice blast as people start to scatter. "Please. Does brain freeze come with the territory with those powers?" She asks dryly and brings her fists up as she shakes the ice off her cape and blows it back into Frost's face to distract her before looking to Stardust. "Just like with the parademons?" she asks and offers a crooked smile. Power Boy gets a quick look and a warm smile at his protective wall.

Power Boy has posed:
    The field surges both is color, size, and intensity at that smile. Maybe he's compensating, or maybe he just likes her that much, or maybe her approval matters to him, or maybe the hope she generates and is currently powering Power Boy's construct just was more inspiring to all the others as she shook loose that ice. Regardless, the field shines all the brighter. "Kick her (filthy sounding alien word), Supergirl!"
    The kids repeat it, and Power Boy gets a couple of dirty looks from parents as the young alien teaches children an alien curse word.

Stardust has posed:
On the scale of things that have been fired or exploded at her, Stardust doesn't particularly rate an icy snowball that highly on the threat-o-meter. Nevertheless, she dodges. It's instinct more than anything else, and when you're already in the air, just flying UP is easy enough. "My face?" she asks. "Was that an attempt at banter? You guys are just SO cute. You're trying so hard!"

"Bad guy tennis?" she calls down to Supergirl. "You got it. Maybe heatray that gun too?" She soars upwards, flying a distracting circuit to keep the attention, and icy attacks, of the badguys pointed that way rather than crowd-wards, and gets ready to receive punch victims in a replay of the aforementioned Parademon battle, or to swoop down on someone, as necessary.

Superman has posed:
    Killer Frost snarls when Supergirl catches the blast with such ease. "Parademons?," she then asks in confusion, glancing between the two superheroes. She shifts her stance and gestures, creating a shield of ice, to try to hold off as much as she can. One really super punch will shatter it, and likely take her down, though.

    Captain Cold seems pleased as the green glob vanishes, and he whirls back about to try and find the mayor...who has now been taken out of view. The leader snowls as Stardust mocks him, and he follows her through the sky, lobbing icecicles and snow balls.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein picks up a large plastic barrel of apple cider and is preparing to lob it, waiting for them to be distracted. He can throw it far but shuts down in total cold. He waits and watches.

Supergirl has posed:
"Oooh? And I thought you were an admirer." Supergirl shakes her head as the ice wall goes up. "Does this mean you don't want to kill me?" She wonders and brings a fist back to punch through the wall. She's going for omph, not finesse. No doubt Damian and Power Boy might find her form painful, but she does put her hips and core into it, she's learning! She calls out to Captain Cold to draw his fire so he's open. "Really? You shrieked about a ghost, what are you? Seven?"

Stardust has posed:
Stardust darts, swooshes and loops through the air, dodging the icy missiles being hurled at her. From time to time she stops to stick her tongue out and make a face at the leader. "Yah! Missed me!" It's all to keep him distracted until Supergirl makes her move...

When Supergirl punches through Killer Frost's wall and knocks her into the air, Stardust is ready. She changes direction suddenly to intercept, grabs her, swings her around twice, and hurls her back down... straight at the leader. How's that for an icy missile?

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein tosses the barrel at precisely the time of Stardust's attack aiming for the person closest to her target to distract. It flies through the air and unless shot out willbe pretty accurate

Superman has posed:
    The ice shield shatters like sugar glass, and Killer Frost cries out in surprise. She has heard things about Kryptonians, but she's never FOUGHT one! She goes flying into the air...and right into Stardust's punch! She is knocked out cold, and sails back down towards the leader. He, however...manages to get BARELY out of the way. Frost hits the snow and crumples. He leaps back...and right into Frankenstein's tossed barrel. His right arm shatters, as if he were made of ice, and he howls and snarls. He then whirls about...and in a rage he fires off a blast at the tent of children...though there is time to block the blast if someone is fast enough!

    Immediatly after the blast, however, Captain Cold turns on the man. "HEY! NO INNOCENTS! YOU AGREED!" The Rogue blasts the man with his gun, sending him flying back into a lamppost...and crumpling to the ground.

Power Boy has posed:
    "Punch through the obstruction!" Power Boy cheers Supergirl on. "Good use of your hips! Aim for the back of the target, throw the punch to transfer as much of the..." He looks about at the kids who are staring at him as if he grew a second head. One little girl stomps on his foot to no avail. "She's soopergirl. She can punch." Power Boy starts to open his mouth to argue, but just says, "Of course." He clears his throat and keeps the barrier up, just looking abashed. "Just keep the shield up." The little girl tells him. POwer Boy shifts the construct field to take the hit. There is a flash of energy. The little girl's eyes are huge. She holds onto Power Boy's hand." His features soften. "I got this." he assures her.

Supergirl has posed:
Looking towards the children, Supergirl tenses and remembers Power Boy is over there with his protective wall. She looks at Captain Cold. "I should think you've cooled your heels by now. Care to surrender peacefully?" She asks and curls her hands into fists as she squares off with the Captain and notes the other heroes. "Don't forget my cousin is likely due to arrive any moment." She adds in a purr. She isn't worried, he's out matched and his team mates are downed. "You have this one if he shoots, Stardust?" She offers and looks up to her ally.

Stardust has posed:
"You got it," Stardust calls down to Supergirl, as she flies overhead and drops down the other side of Captain Cold, all the better to make him feel surrounded. She jerks her thumb towards the man he just shot, and tuts. "No class, huh? See, that's what happens when you consort with these kinda idiots. You picked the wrong side, Freezy-pants. You obviously ain't like those jerks. How about it, huh? Don't sink to their level. Put the gun down."

Superman has posed:
    The blast hits Power Boy's barrier, and dissipates. Captain Cold, meanwhile, scowls at Supergirl. "Ice pun. That's cold." In response, however, he sets his freeze gun down and sighs, dropping to his knees and tucking his hands behind his head. He's been arrested in Central City a thousand times before, afterall. At this point the police move in, since they've been maintaining the crowd and safety, and quickly arrest Leonard, and the two other unconcious ones. "Don't tell Flash about this?," he calls out to Supergirl. "It's damn embarassing." The Rogue is led off, while the other two are carried off. People cheer on the heroes!

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein decides NOW is the time to turn on the lights on his neck and he gives two thumbs up just like in the commercial.

Supergirl has posed:
"Absolutely, it'd hurt his feelings you know." Supergirl waves Captain Cold off and looks to Stardust. "Awesome. Man. Makes me miss the Titans. It's way more nerve wracking fighting with the Leaguers." She shakes her head and trots over to Power Boy and Damian. "Did you see? That was way better!" She tells Power Boy and waves to Frankenstein as she passes. "Awesome throw dude!" She calls out and returns to the kids all smiles.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Having observed the heroes begrudgingly from behind the safety of the barrier, Damian places a hand to his chin. Giving a round of applause along with the smaller kids. "Great job there." He offers, giving a smirk to the group.

Power Boy has posed:
    The field drops, and the families are free to go. The little girl looks up at Power Boy. "Soopergirl is better."
    Power Boy nods. "She is." She tugs at his hand to get him to kneel. He does. She clips the ornament onto his chest cut out. She leaves a messy kiss on his cheek. "You are okay though. Thanks!" She skips off and over towards Supergirl and stardust cheering them on along with the other kids.
    Power Boy just remains kneeling. FOr a moment it looks like he might cry, then his features harden, even as he rubs his cheek as if to push the kiss in. He then rubs at one of his eyes.
    Slowly standing, Power Boy nods. "Greatly improved." he agrees. "Everyone should be very proud. I know you worked hard to get better."

Stardust has posed:
"I knew you were smarter than those other two," Stardust tells Captain Cold as he's cuffed. "Join the other side," she advises him. "Get yourself off Santa's naughty list. Crime doesn't pay, etcetera." She grins at Supergirl, walking away with her. "That was fun," she agrees.

  On the way, she stops short by Frankenstein. "Very awesome throw," she agrees, looking him up and down. "Does that mean it isn't a costume after all? Hmm. Well so long as you're the misunderstood soul trope rather than the brain eating zombie type, we cool. " She gives Frankenstein a thumbs up before rejoining the rest of the heroes. "That your work with the sheilding thing?" she asks Power Boy. "Good stuff. Huh. I should have had a line about a snowball's chance in hell... damn."

Superman has posed:
    The mayor has been shuffled off to whatever bunker is used during villain attacks, but the people have begun to slowly go about enjoying the festivities...at which point someone points upwards into the snow. "Hey, look! It's a bird!" "No, it's a plane!" "Seriously? Come on. It's Superman!" "Oh...yeah. No clue how I thought he was a bird." "...Yeah...I've been drinking since noon..."

    Superman lands in a circle that is quickly opened for him by the crowd, his red cape fluttering at his booted ankles. He flashes a warm and charismatic smile, and people wave and cheer. "Sorry I'm late, everyone! A satellite was falling over Norway, and that would NOT have made for a very Merry Christmas!" Folks laugh, and photos are taken. He leans over to sign a picture or two, being very warm and friendly, before he spots the other costumes.

    "Supergirl! Hello! You're Stardust, right?" He knows her name! He peers curiously at Power-Boy, though, unfamiliar, and he givesd Frankenstein a curious look as well. "Good job, everyone. I heard it all wrapping up on my way over. I'm proud of you all. You should be, too."

Slimer has posed:
    Slimer peeks out from where he'd be doing HIS job. His job of ... making sure a whole hell of a lot of snacks are 'safe'. Most of them are candy canes, but there's ice cream, some condiments from a taco stand, and a variety of other things that normally would clash with such a thing. And Slimer is okay with being an unsung hero-- at least for now, in his daring, action-pacted behind-the-scenes rescue missions. Really.

Supergirl has posed:
"Power Boy take good care of you, Mr. Wayne?" Supergirl asks and looks to the other children. "What about you guys? He do a good job?" She asks the kids, eliciting a few Power Boy cheers and some thankful looks from parents. After all, he protected them. She just hit some bad guys. She looks at her cousin and props a hand on her hip. "Hi Superman. Norway huh? Chilly troubles all over today." She comments and straightens. "Oh. Power Boy, Superman." she gestures between the two. "Should someone check on that ghost thing?" She wonders and looks around for the frozen blob.

Power Boy has posed:
    "I thought you wee quite witty." Power Boy assures Stardust. He settles his arms about his middle, his body language displaying his sudden ill ease. His left hand slides upwards to run a finger over the ornament the little girl left there. He reaches up to remove the elf on a shelf from his shirt which gets gasps from the kids. That against the rules!
    He looks confused, and slowly removes the antlers and sleigh bells as well. that ornament though? It stays right where the little girl left it. "Superman." Power Boy greets the hero in a respectful tone with a little nod of his head.
    "Ghost thing?" Power Boy asks. He lacks those super senses. He just looks about. "What ghost thing? Ghosts are real?"

Stardust has posed:
Stardust's eyes dilate slightly, but probably noticeably to ultra-sharp Kryptonian senses, when he addresses her by name. oO(He's heard of me?) she thinks. oO(Even *I* have barely heard of me). It occurs to her that signing up with the Titans probably has raised her profile a fair bit, but still. She'd be totally fangirling about that, if she did such things. Or at least admitted to doing such things. "Yep, that's me. Hi Superman," she says, /totally/ nonchalantly.

"The ghost thing! I totally forgot about that guy," Stardust says with a snap of her fingers when Supergirl reminds them. "I knew there was something... the Snow Patrol totally distracted me. " She peers through the crowd, trying to search out the pretzel thief again.

Superman has posed:
    "Power Boy?," Superman asks curiously. He offers him a hand to shake and smiles. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Power Boy." He arches an eyebrow at the mention of a ghost, and he glances over in Slimer's direction. "Quite a bit of mischief tonight, huh? Well, I'm glad to see everyone is okay. We should get on lighting that tree, huh? Since the mayor had to take off for his own safety?" He glances back towards Power Boy. "You alright? I liked the look. This is my favorite time of year."

   

Slimer has posed:
    'Ghost thing'? GHOST THING?!

    Slimer is being looked for? This could be a big moment. A moment of great importance in his very small, spud-like little existance. He swallows the array of candy canes to keep them safe (...), and licks his small palms to wipe them back over where his hair would be if he had any hair, getting ready for his big moment. ...He is, though, still mostly in a bin of hats and bows, and 'green' is a pretty strong color with the whole christmas theme, let alone glowing green things, so he may not be immediately spotted.

Supergirl has posed:
"Apparently. Did you see that green thing?" Supergirl asks and slides a hand into one of Power Boy's, giving it a quick squeeze and smiling at him. She nods to Colette. "I totally just remembered Captain Cold freezed him too. Poor blob, ghost, thingy. Oh the tree!" She looks at Superman and nods. "Yes, shoo. You're on the clock." she shoos the Superman with a dry expression, flapping her hands and trying to heard him to the tree.

Power Boy has posed:
    The handshake is firm to even the Kryptonian sensibility. A hard, strong hand that shakes warmly. Power Boy nods. "I arrived with the invasion." Because there is no point in being a liar or false. His gives a little nod of his head. "A pleasure to meet you, sir." He is sincere, but his heart rate is a little elevated.
    A more telling thing is the nervous look he gives Supergirl and the fact his hand squeezes hers back. His heart positively races when Supergirl grabs his hand.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust turns to Power Boy, raising an eyebrow. "Ghosts are real. Here's a tip. If you ever need to ask the question 'is X real', the answer is always 'yes, x is real, and it's gonna cause trouble at some point'. " The young superhero is obviously old in cynicism. "There are even ghost cops," she answers. "I mean like cops that arrest ghosts, not cops that are ghosts, but there's probably that too. One of them mistook me for a ghost once. Also aliens, Frankenstein monsters, giant talking turtles, ninjas..." she drifts off. "Pirates. I've never met a pirate. But they're probably real too."

Superman has posed:
    "Please, call me Kal. My dad was 'sir'," Superman offers Power Boy with a friendly, joking tone. He doesn't comment on the grip. He glances briefly between Supergirl and Power Boy. He can hear the change in heart rate, and it makes him look at him a little differently. He is still very friendly, of course. He IS Superman.

    "I fought space pirates. Well, a space pirate and his crew. He was a K'lanthian. He came to Earth centuries ago and fell in love with old pirate culture, and fashioned himself after it. Tentacle face...tricorner hat...hook hand. A literal Flying Dutchman with plasma cannons. It was...an experience." He laughs softly. He nods to Supergirl and makes his way to the tree.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "That he did." Damian offers, returning to the group, of course seeing everyone happy to be safe and to see Superman has Damian a little aloof. "They are real." He offers to Colette, as if he'd know for sure. He starts to make his way to the tree to witness the lighting.

Supergirl has posed:
"Oh. Pirates are real, that's not like...that's a historical fact." Supergirl chimes in. She looks more exasperated than anything else at Superman's story. "Rau. You are lucky I'm too young to ground you." She says and ushers the man along with an exasperated look to Stardust and Damian Wayne. "Are Earth families this exasperating?" She wonders. "He's so full of life threatening tales. I can just see my aunt and uncle fussing about not keeping a better eye on baby Kal." Poor Slimer. There's a Superman to herd before she worries about the ghost thing.

Slimer has posed:
Slimer continues to pose. And ... continues to pose. And wait. ....And they're not interested in his unlife it appears. Well. He deflates into a rather flattened version of himself.... and makes himself feel better by shaking some ice crystals out of his lower body and eating the rescued ice cream without a spoon: just pawing it on out of the container. The decorations bin is going to be very sticky for more than just an ectoplasm reason.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust shakes a finger at Superman's retreating back. "You're just trying to make me feel jealous. I want to fight space pirates too. I never fought space pirates." She pauses a moment. "Or gone into space for that matter." Another pause. "At least not while sober..." she mutters to herself, recalling a very strange party thrown by Asgardians.

She falls in with the group, following along behind Superman as he heads to the tree, walking in step with Damian. "Hey Shortstuff," she says. "Keeping well? Got stuff to talk to you about when there's a quiet moment." Her eyes scan the crowds, looking out for ghosts. She's still interested in Slimer...at least enough to tell him off for stealing snacks, but she lacks the super-senses to pick him out easily.

Power Boy has posed:
    "Well. I knew Aliens were real." He assures Stardust with the faintest of grins. "I am talking to one now." Power Boy quips. He nods to Superman. "I'll try." he catches the look and the subtle shift in emotion, but he smiles back at Superman. Not in a nasty way, but in a 'yeah, we'll talk later' sort of way, still friendly. Still respectful, but apparently honest.
    "I'll try to remember that rule of thumb though. Your planet is so.. diverse." He murmurs at Supergirl. "Family is important, I keep hearing. You should help him out." His smile is soft, and just a touch jealous. Not his favorite emotion, but between Sue Storm mothering him and the holidays, he is beginning to realize just what he missed out on. "he loves you. Go be with him." His features are hard to read, but his blue eyes widen. "Is that the ghost? The thing that deflated like a ball?" He sort of points in Slimer's general direction. "Are there green squirrels? It could have been a green squirrel?"

Supergirl has posed:
"Nah. It's more fun to watch it with my friends. All the splash and light is his thing." Supergirl shakes her head. "Besides, I bet Stardust's cocoa is all cold now so we should get new ones, huh?" She suggests and bumps Power Boy lightly before looking to Stardust and Damian. "Want to tag along since you're sans family here?" She offers to the boy.

Slimer has posed:
    Slimer applies one of the santa hats to his head. To make himself more appealing. It probably actually does the opposite, because it emphasizes his transparency (you can see through his head into the hat), and the white fluffy edge of it has become crusty with the snot-like green substance he seems to be sharing with nearly everything he's in contact with.

    There's some faults here with the ghost, obviously, but he is ALSO not lunging out and scaring the crap out of all the children - or anybody, really. Which means he's mostly just going to be less obvious. Until somebody walks by with a churro and the ghost's eyes get big...

Stardust has posed:
Stardust's gaze follows Power Boy's pointing fingers. She peers through the crowds until she makes out the figure, now santa-hatted. "Squirrels don't wear hats," she says. "Probably not even green ones." She jabs a finger in Slimer's direction and calls out. "You! Leave that snack alone." She curls her finger up into a beckoning gesture to the ghost, then points to the ground by her feet. "New cocoa sounds good SG," she says. "We may also need a large number of sugary snacks, which I am beginning to suspect are highly attractive to ghosts."

Superman has posed:
    The Man of Tomorrow appears at the podium, and people quiet. "Ladies and gentlemen, you are heroes. Each and every one of you, regardless of super powered or colored costumes. You may not fly, or fighting criminals, but you are here. You support one another. You get through hardship and hold your head high. You make it through, and you help others make it through. Life is hard when you can crack a planet...and yet humanity moves forward through all of it...as people. I am humbled by that...and I am thankful for -you-. Please, hold hands with the friend or stranger next to you...and thank them for being just as heroic as you are. More heroic then I could ever be." One of the reasons people tend to love him is because he makes them feel so great about themselves.

    People move to hold hands, and conversation is exchanged. Thank yous and well wishes...and then the tree lights up in all of its brilliant color.

    "Thank you, Metropolis, for humbling me in the best way possible."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian gives a nod at the offered accompaniment. "Sure. I'm buying." He heads over to the stand, eyeing the Santa hat wearing ghost. "Five cocoas...and a bunch of churros. At least...eight?" He hands over a crisp $100 bill no change needed. "Hey." He says, looking to Slimer. "You did good! Merry Christmas!" He offers a grouping of three churros to the ghost.

  A tray and a bag later, and the youngest Wayne has the required snacks for everyone.

  Green eyes widen a bit as he's asked to hold hands, but the hands seem to be full, a sigh of relief before he looks to whomever is next to him. "Thank you." He says, smiling.

Slimer has posed:
Slimer dips down into the box of decor in a 'I didn't do it' wide-eyed look. But, then, Superman is there being so charismatic! He does fly. But no criminals. He isn't even alive. But he can still be inspired. To NOT eat... this last candy cane. And considers ---

    Wait. New distraction: Damian. He suddenly has 3 churros offered, and there is absolutely no ability to resist that. Slimer releases a thrilled little sound along the line of "Bwweheheheheeee!" and reaches out to grab the gifts, entirely focused on Damian. Sorry Superman, Stardust, Super folks: Damian had /churros/....

Power Boy has posed:
    Ow.Ow. Ow. Emotions all over. Luckily positive ones, but Power Boy sways for a moment as gratitude and hope swell in the area. He shoots Supergirl a look. He looks dazed. He murmurs, "Gotta go." It is said softly. "It's like I just took one of your punches right between the eyes. It's... very intense." He starts to lift off. "So-sorry. Please apologize for me." He tells Supergirl. He does look vaguely bleary-eyed as if concentrating through the upswell of emotion is hard for him.
    All he can think is he's glad its positive. If it had been negative...
    Power Boy lifts off, and angles upwards, his left hand gripping the ornament, and giving a quick little wave before rocketing off with a soft pop as he goes supersonic before he loses himself completely in that sea of emotion.

Supergirl has posed:
Supergirl smiles and hand holds. In this case it's Stardust and Power Boy, but she also makes sure to shake hands with other people around her too. She offers Damian a nod and takes some of the cocoas off his hands. "Thanks Damian. That's nice of you." She tells him and replaces Stardust's cocoa. "Courtesy of the nicest Wayne." She tells him and looks at Power Boy as he lifts off. "Awww. Poor guy. It's like a love fest down here I bet." She murmurs and looks back to her friends and ghost. "So umm, ice skating next?" She wonders, her cousin is much more graceful with his words, clearly.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust can't compete with Damian levels of broody cynicism, but there's a slight roll of her eyes when the whole holding hands thing comes up. It all seems kinda Hallmark to her. However her shield of cynicism is easily broken down by the general upswell of positive festive feelings and she's soon joining in. Holding hands with Supergirl on one side, she looks to see who's on the other side, recognises that Damian probably doesn't want to be touched, and looks down.

Slimer.

Stardust takes in the layer of green slime encrusting the fur trim of his hat, and then glances at her pristine white glove. With a slight sigh, she offers him her hand, thankful that she can renew her costume from damage - and mess - so easily. Christmas spirit, after all, should be extended to spirits. Even gluttonous ones.

Slimer has posed:
    Sorry, there will be some ectoplasm on the glove by the end of this. But Slimer entirely misunderstands what the hand is held out for. With a lot of effort, he sloooooowly.... extends.... and releases the LAST of the rescued candy canes into Stardust's possession, setting it into her hand. And then wilting to the floor as if he'd just battled off the worst of the villains in the world. And maybe he has; hunger is a powerful, powerful thing. So valiant the struggle, such giving christmas spirit! ...sorry, it's just a little slimy, but it's just the wrapper.

Superman has posed:
    Once the whole thing is done, Superman comes walking back over. It takes time for him to get there, since he is pausing to shake hands and be friendly with the civilians and police officers, and anyone else. Eventually he gets back to them. "Sorry, I didn't have a chance to write a speech," Kal offers with a soft chuckle. "Did the boy who likes you take off?," he asks Supergirl curiously. He glances between the others, smiling.

Supergirl has posed:
"Kal!" Kara exclaims at the question and rolls her eyes. She looks at Stardust, looks down at her hand. The maid of might's eyes go saucer huge and she looks back at Superman forcing her expression to neutral. "Yup. He's an empath so all this-" She gestures and shrugs. "He said to tell you he's sorry to meet you and dash." She offers and looks at Damian seeing his phone out and grins. "Is your dad like my cousin? Didn't have time to write a speech. Sheesh."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian attempts to be sneaky, pulling out his WayneTech phone and snapping a couple pictures of Slimer regurgitating the candy cane into Stardust's hand.

  With little effort, he slips it back into his coat. The question from Supergirl garners an honest response. "He usually has them written for him. He rarely writes his own." He offers, not bringing any attention to himself slipping the phone back in his coat.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust stares at the candy cane in her hand, then at the exhausted looking ghost wilting on the floor beside her. Ghosts are not in her area of expertise, but she recognizes the personal sacrifice that slimer has made, proving that indeed spirits do get the Christmas spirit. She very gingerly gives the ghost a pat on the head, or at least pats at the intangible spot where the top of his head appears to be. There's ectoplasm on her glove anyway, after all. "Thank you," she says to him. She looks thoughtful for a few moments. The ghost gave her a Christmas present! That's kind of awesome. She should give him something. What do ghosts like? Oh wait, it's pretty clear what THIS ghost likes. She turns to the vendor and slips him a couple of bills. Not quite as generous with her tipping as Damian, but then she's not heir to a vast fortune. "Another ten churros for my little green buddy, please."

With a few surreptitious wipes of her hand, Stardust cleans off the candy cane and pockets it. She stares at her now rather sticky hand, and then looks at Damian, thinking evil thoughts.

"You ever done public speaking, Shortstuff?" Stardust asks Damian. "I mean some day your dad's gonna say all this is yours, and that includes the speechifying duties. I'm sure you'll do great though," she says, patting him on the back.

With her slimed glove.

Which, fortunately for whoever has to clean Damian's coat, she has reconstructed, sans slime, while nobody was looking. A useful power indeed.

Slimer has posed:
    The Vendor -- and in fact, most of the people around -- are probably not so tolerant of Slimer as even these super people are. Slimer's awareness seems to kind of flux depending on how distracted he is. And in this case, there's more food, as a prize for being out next to Stardust, so he'll stay right there. He sticks a little uncomfortably close to her leg. He's very easy to pat, because of the santa hat: it is very firm, real, and the top isn't slimy anyway. He bounces up and down hopefully for the churros, both arms out, mouth super wide open. Churros go in there. Tongue extends. Yes, right on there, on that ghostly eerie dripping reddish ghost-tongue.


    So, there's probably some new screaming and pointing.

Superman has posed:
    Kal nods to Supergirl and chuckles softly. "Well, I'd love to meet him again. Have him over for dinner soon. I'll cook. No cutting onions for you, don't worry." He glances about at everyone and smiles, before he furrows his brow a bit and glances at the sky.

    "I'm sorry, everyone. I'd love to stick around and chat, but there's a situation in Guam."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Being called Shortstuff gets Damian's eyes to flare slightly. "I have." Then he feels it, the pat on the back felt around the world. The coat he was given was luxurious black cashmere from Paris. While not one of his prized possessions, he did like to keep looking well kempt in public. A slight jump as he reels back, almost seething with the thought of a Big Slimey handprint on his back.

  He quickly removes the coat and inspects the back...nothing there. "How...what?" He knew exactly how she did it. But that was Robin's info, not Damian Wayne's, keeping in character. "Nice one." He says, thinking of sending out that picture for all Twitter to see.

  "Well, this was fun. But I need to get back to Gotham, school night and all." He says, giving a wave and a smile to all. "Merry Christmas!"

Supergirl has posed:
Kara edges away from Slimer since she does her own laundry. Watching Slimer go to town on churros she looks back to Damian a little horrified. "Oh. There are people who write speeches? Hey Kal, I think I know the perfect day job for you if you need one." She cants her head and then nods. "Yeah. Hop to. I'll let him know." She tells Kal and looks to her friends again. "Guess it's adult free zone." She starts and looks to Damian. "Oh uh, yeah. Nice meeting you!" She offer and looks to Stardust.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust holds her now once again pristinely gloved hand for Damian to see, grinning widely at him. "As if I'd ruin your gorgeous coat, Damian." She gives him a wink as she turns her open hand gesture into a wave. "Laters, Wayne. Merry Christmas."

"Guam, huh?" Stardust says, looking at Superman. "Norway, Metropolis, Guam. Quite an itenerary. You are a busy guy. Do you ever have down time? Makes me almost glad I can't fly all that fast. She grins, turning to Supergirl. "Well, we beat the bad guys, the lights are lit, and it looks like the party's winding to an end. What do you say, SG? Wanna go looking for trouble? Or food? I wanna hear all about the League. You guys gotta have the /best/ gossip."

Slimer has posed:
So yes, there was some screaming, pointing. But the buffer of superheroes is not to be taken lightly. Perhaps it's a horribly creepy mascot. In any event, there's a bigger gift tonight that the superheroes are probably entirely unaware of: a little ghost got to be out and seen without horrible reactions. And fed. It is a good holiday after all, even as the group disperses, and Slimer does his best to keep one churro --- nope, can't do it. It's eaten. But maybe he'll see them again.

    Maybe.

[United] Rising Tide - The Escape

Here

Rising Tide: The Escape
Date of Scene: 11 January 2018
Location: Triskelion, New York City
Synopsis: Skye makes her escape from SHIELD and re-joins the Rising Tide with a little help from outside and above.
Cast of Characters: Quake, Nick Fury, Hawkeye (Barton), Phil Coulson, Black Widow, Iron Man, Oracle, Frankenstein

Quake has posed:
It had taken her the day to set up. Luckily, Skye's job was doing almost exactly what she was doing today: puttering at the computeres. If anyone noticed that today she was hooked into the mainframe of the system a lot more than usual, nobody commented. She'd been starting to transfer bits from the stolen Hydra data. For all anyone knew, that's what she was doing.

Instead, she was setting up her defection. Letting Oracle know her role in the matter. Hunting up passwords and security roundabouts. Plotting her path. Finding the files she was going to steal. Putting the computer virus she was going to use to keep folks out of her hair into place. She had the go ahead. All that remained was to make it happen.

Skye had chosen a shift-change for mission go. Everyone was just a little lazier then. Coming and going, screens weren't as closely monitored. People were shutting things down, packing shit up, settling into their work spaces and catching up on the day's rundown. Even with staggered rotations, the casual chaos of shift change made the most sense.

So, suppertime, Skye starts to casually shut down many of the essential systems between herself and the door. Her program was in place; she'd set it to go as soon as she'd done her download. And the download was the last thing she needed. All she had to do was make it look convincing. Files chosen, Skye begins her download. The countdown begins..

Nick Fury has posed:
    It was a normal night like any other in SHIELD HQ. Nick Fury was in Operations, monitoring the World situation. Something was bothering him though. Something was up, he could sense it. Tapping the nearest console in the Control Room, Fury accesses the operation sit rep, and so far, the night was going as per the norm.

    Crossing his arms across his chest, Fury stares down the strange expressions from several Agents, wondering why the Director would be in Ops, at this time of night, during supper? Without a word, he just continues to do his thing. As several Agents begin to leave, Fury waits.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint was back on the active roster again which meant a lot of training and occasionally some reports. As it was about quitting time for the 9-5 Adminions, Clint takes one of those reports upstairs, and heads into Operations. He's in Agent Barton mode today, a SHIELD jacket thrown over his tactical kit, badge worn on chain around his neck, ICER resting in the holster on his hip.

Seeing the man himself, in Ops, Clint winds his way through the consoles to get there, "Down from the Odyssey boss? Figured they'd have to pry you out of the thing. And seen Coulson around? I've got that report he was looking for."

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil is on duty, today, though just arriving for his shift. The senior agent enters the room, wearing his usual suit and tie and begins to approach Fury, though Clint gets a nod, "Director. Surprised you are in here." He nods to Clint again, "Agent Bartlett." Phil takes a look around the room and tries to glance at the various monitors to get the idea of what is going on.

Black Widow has posed:
In her office, Natasha is just coming in. She had been out on an assignment for the last week. Her reports were already filed but she opted to come into the office to make sure everything went through properly and to check with Fury personally to discuss what happened that wasn't on the report. There are always things that weren't on the report. First, she needed to take care of a few things on the computer.

The big wooden desk seems so out of place in the building of metal and glass fixtures but it was something Natasha had insisted upon. It had been modified, allowing for the computer screen and keyboard to disappear within when not in use. Right now, the screen is up and she is clicking through emails that have piled up while she was gone.

Iron Man has posed:
Tony Stark has some of his attention on a holographic tech pad he set is carrying, flipping through the mid-air items low to the tech pad with right hand at high speed. He's located behind some of the bright monitors in Ops, currently. There are two little mechanical drones in the air together near his left shoulder, one of them with a lead down to the tech pad, making it appear to float like a confused little low-air mechanical balloon. They are about soccer ball size, and emit a low fan-style whirring, but are otherwise reasonably quiet. Both drones are identical, other than one having a lead and the other not, and are both clearly doing some sort of slow scanning diagnostic procedure.

The remainder of Tony's attention is on the last part of a sandwich he is trying to finish, but his hands are full... He sets down the tablet on a table to attend to the sandwich, also half-sitting on the edge of it. Priorities.

Tony is in his usual sleek business wear, aside from a visitor badge clipped to his suit jacket. And totally not the reason why anybody would be keeping an eye on things in Ops. Not at all. The sounds of greetings makes him lean out around the monitor, hardly subtle. He answers when Barton questions Fury's location: "That's my fault! I needed the grand tour," Tony supplies loudly, a smile in tone as well as on his face.

Quake has posed:
Waiting for a download is kind of like watching paint dry at times. Or water boiling. And about as painful if you misjudge the timing. Still, this wasn't Skye's first time at this rodeo - before SHIELD there'd been Rising Tide, and before them, there had been other escapades. All that required exactly this sort of wait. The only difference was what she was really waiting for was all the other bits and pieces to fall into place. Once that data stick was removed from the computer and shoved into a pocket, things were going to get hairy.

Still, Skye felt good about the rest of it. She'd done all she could at this point to make her flight possible. She had to trust everything fell into place the way it was supposed to. Though she appreciated the irony of breaking out of the place. Of coures, they wouldn't have her behind the systems stopping her. Still, Nat was more than a fair hand at that. Which was why Skye had left the other in place and contacted Oracle.

Oracle had been a gamble, but there were reasons - not the least of which was she couldn't be touched by SHIELD systems, and Skye had to get out with the information she had at all costs. Nat could counter what Skye left behind. In fact, Nat was precisely why Skye had left that behind. It solved two problems with one stone: how not to get shot by Nat, and how to keep Nat from merely rerouting things and ending this before it began.

Oracle was interference along the way and backup for when Nat eventually shut down Skye's virus.

She just needed her download to complete and.. ah. There it was. The green lighted flash of success as everything finished.

Skye casually begins hitting her presets, clearing the path between herself and the doors, as well as other random systems and areas, things both innocuous and vital. She's committed now.

Welcome to the big leagues Ms. Johnson.

Nick Fury has posed:
    Fury accesses the operation sit rep, keeping up to speed. So far, everything was going according to plan. Everything was calm and quiet, but shift change brought about a weakness in the system. It was a good time...and that was when Barton arrives. "Agent Barton. Nice to see you. Yeah, just had a meeting with Stark, so I thought I'd stick around."

    Stark adds to that excuse as well, with the "grand tour" comment. Fury nods to Stark, and then notes a new arrival. "Haven't seen...well, speak of the devil himself. Agent Coulson. Evenin'."

    Next, all hell broke lose. Fury noticed that several systems were...not working as they should. That was when the Ops Manager's console started to show an intrusion alarm as Skye removed the data stick.

    "Report!" Fury barks at the nearest Agent, and moves swiftly to their location. Reading what was happening, and looking at the video uplink, Fury curses, and says, "I want everyone on board with this. They are to detain Agent Johnson immediately. And I emphasize DETAIN." That last was to junior Agents, moreso than the senior ones.

    Fury then looks at Barton and Coulson. "We have a situation. Get it done." They knew what to do. After all, this clandestine mission had to look good, and sending the best to get her, and/or coordinate her "capture"...well, that was as real as it got. And Fury had a few surprises if things got...too close.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint looks up at the sound of Tony's voice and grins, "Jeez, who let this guy in here again?" Clint quips. "Whatever happened to security around this place?" though for all the grousing that was just Clint's way of saying, 'hey Tony'.

Phil gets a little of the classic Barton snark as well, "Bartlett? What am I a TV president?" Clint asks Phil with a grin, assuming his former Supervisory Officer was just messing with him. He hands over the report. "Here you go, looked over the mission plan and left my notes. Sounds like a fun time, let me know if you need a hand."

Then all the alerts go off and Clint remarks, "I was kidding about the security thing," he says, but despite the joke his game face is on, and he's ready and alert.

Until he isn't.

"What? Agent Johnson? You mean the guy in payroll right?" he asks before he catches sight of the vid and blinks. "Shit," he says and looks to Fury even as the man is barking orders. "C'mon boss let me talk to her, I am sure there's a good explanation." For the moment at least, Barton isn't budging.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"Been watching too much West Wing", Phil notes to Clint and nods to Tony, but there is much more to pay attention to. He blinks for a moment when the room goes full pandemonium. As Furybarks out orders, Phil draws his sidearm and says to Clint, "Hence the detain. If we don't take care of her, some hotshot wanna-be hero is going to and probably do something stupid. If you want to talk with her, we need to go, now."

Black Widow has posed:
If she got one more email about attending a baby shower, Natasha was going to shoot someone. She deleted the third email on that particular subject. Each had been for a different person. That's what happened when one was in the Senior Agent group listing. Maybe she needed to send out a video surveillance from her last mission so they knew that shooting was a very real danger. Probably would be considered a threat. Which it would be. But still.

The computer suddenly flared with a warning across the screen. Frowning, her fingers began to fly over the keys. She sees the systems beginning to fail. Some were nothing important but a few of those were critical. She slipped into the system and began working behind the scenes to try and counter. Only...that programming looked awfully familiar. Her expression darkened as she murmured softly to her self. "What have you done?" Then she pushes her comm unit and her voice comes across the channel. "Agent Johnson has compromised the systems. I am trying to keep things up. She has taken secure data and needs to be detained before she leaves the building." She's not aware this is old news to those in Ops.

Iron Man has posed:
"Hey Barton; aren't YOU the security, though? There's your answer. Also, I was dismayed by the lack of red carpet; get on that, huh?" Tony answers with amusement in response to Clint's greeting. Tony was mostly involved in his sandwich when suddenly a lot of things seem to turn inside out with seriousness. Tony ... keeps eating his sandwich, observing, without particularly reacting much at all at first. However, the statement about Ms. Johnson gets a very large eyebrow raise, and a particularly curious look is cast to Clint.

"Your girl gone wild?" Tony questions Clint idly. He has mustard on his fingers, and looks for something to wipe it on, settling for the sandwich wrapper. The little drones ignore all the activity and keep doing their current task, for the moment, as they have not been directed otherwise. Tony does, however, pull a different handheld from a pocket and do a few things that SHIELD probably wouldn't prefer he do, just to, you know, peek.

Quake has posed:
Skye does a slight head tilt of appreciation as Nat's voice comes over the comms system. "Nice reaction time there, Nat," she murmurs to herself, noting it was several full seconds earlier than she'd expected. Getting out was going to be a bit tougher than she thought, and Skye already knew it was going to be tough.

Thank goodness for alternative routes, and backup plans. Of course at this point she had to count on things running as she'd set them out.

Out was her goal, preferably the foyer, but with the route she'd planned, Skye didn't have to commit to that until the last minute. She had several hallways and a whole other floor (at least!) to get through before that. The beauty of access to almost all of SHIELD's systems was.. you saw almost all of SHEILD's systems, and Skye had memorized the rats nest warren of other ways to get around this place. It had started after Hydra, and something of a joke after she and Clint had gotten lost trying to find their way out after a missturn. Today had been brushing up on that knowledge and planning. She had a preferred route, but she wasn't stupid enough to not have backups. She was running up against the best SHIELD had after all.

Flashdrive safely in her pocktet, ICER at her side, Skye takes a left out of R&D and heads down the nearest hallway.

First order of business: some of the lesser used back ends.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Shut up, Tony," Clint says about that Skye gone wild comment. Though it did sink in some. What the hell was Skye doing? Hopefully some little experiment or moment of curiosity gone wrong. Though as the status boards lit up and more systems went on the fritz he was becoming less and less sure of that.

Phil's words jar him out of his torpor and he gives the older agent a nod, "Yeah. You're right," he says drawing his ICER. "Let's go. And hey, can someone up here feed us location data on Skye, this place is a maze."

Clint heads for the stairs and the hunt was on.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil checks his ICER and talks as he walks, "You know her best, so you take lead on this at first. If things get hairy I reserve the right to take action, but we both want this to be some big mistake or misunderstanding." His tone is flat and serious. "Any ideas on what the heck is going on?"

Black Widow has posed:
"She left R&D and is headed down corrider 27." Yes, Natasha actually knows the corridor numbers. Not that anyone else probably does so she adds. "Left out of R&D, right at next juncture. Someone else will need to do the play by play though. She's done a number and I'm trying to keep us from losing some critical systems so I need to keep my attention on that." With that, she goes back to focusing as she pulls up multiple windows of data. She starts picking out bits, recognizing the style from her time working with (and against) Skye on their mission against Hydra. It's a version of what Skye had used before but not exact. It's going to take time and that she doesn't really have as she works.

Iron Man has posed:
"So, an overwhelming yes. I'll get right on that," Tony replies when told to shut up by Clint, unperturbed. "I would like to state for the record that I didn't leap uninvited into any 'hot-shot heroing' today. Not my circus, not my monkeys," Tony comments (even if he's just talking to himself, or his little robot drone audience), and then subtly turns his back towards the agents leaving behind him, raises the device, and takes a good selfie: himself in the front with a 'disappointed' face, and the other agents looking so serious and upset as they rush out of Ops in the background. He then sends that selfie to Skye. And goes back to his snooping.

"Buuuuut, hypothetically, say you had some gopher holes. Would you want some water flooded down them?" Tony directs more quietly towards Fury.

Quake has posed:
Of course Nat would know the corridor numbers. Nat, and now Skye. No matter, Clint wasn't as savvy on that front. Nor was most anyone else. But Nat's directions are decent enough - if Nat has time to offer them. As expected, that job is shunted off to someone else. That should buy Skye back those seconds, but after that, she's back on her original clock give or take.

It was the give or take that worried her. No matter, though, she didn't have time to worry about it. She had those aces in her back pocket and needed to trust they'd work.

So far, some hallways are situation normal - which was planned to add to the confusion. Hydra had failed there, taking out everything. It was much worse if you left things up in the air as to whether or not they were going to be workign as expected. Skye'd taken things off normal system control, but some bright light would have them back before she made exit - or should have them back. Skye would be disappointed if they couldn't manage that much. Things like elevators and fire supression. Neat thing about that: you trigger a silent fire suppression protocol, and all the elevators go to the next floor, open, and stop working.

Nat was right. The program was familiar. It was meant to be. It wasn't just that it was a damn fine piece of code and terribly efficient at killing systems, Skye really didn't want to fry the entirety of SHIELD either. She needed Nat to stop what she'd left in place. It's sole purpose was to keep Nat busy and not thinking about what was going on. The varients weren't impossible to figure out. It would be a challenge to the other, but Skye had faith.

Tony, though - he was a wildcard Skye couldn't have predicted entering the picture. And Tony was no slouch in all sorts of troublesome areas.

Oracle, on standby, is Skye's ace in the hole. Dynamic system interference at real time speed.

Skye makes it to the first stairwell and heads, not down, but up. For those familiar with the place, she's going to take an opposite route down. Trouble is? This one you can only get to the way she's coming at it from this floor, and there is no guarantee the paths along the way from any other egress are clear... May the odds ever be in your famour?

Nick Fury has posed:
    Watching the displays, the video feeds, and with his own personal resources, Fury makes note of the situation and his frown deepens. This was all a myriad game of cat and mouse, and so far, it was going better than he thought it would. Nat was doing what was expected. Clint was rushing headlong into it, of course. Phil was there to keep things...calm. He could always count on the Senior Agent to do the right thing. And Stark. That was a chess move that Fury had counted on when he agreed to the meeting today.

    "Mr. Stark." Fury didn't use Tony out here in public. It was all about decorum. "I appreciate the offer, but my team has things well in hand. Feel free to observe, and if you have any security recommendations, I'll be all ears." A pause, as he hands Stark the data pad he had picked up from one of the Ops Agents. "Feel free to watch things from this." Fury nods, sending a signal of understanding towards Stark. He was there as backup, just in case.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint is walking at a fast clip as he leaves ops, slipping in his ear comms as he does. "Thanks," Clint says to Phil letting him take the lead. "And I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding."

It had to be.

When Nat comes through with the directions, he says, << 27 which one is- >> Then Nat fills them in with directions that made sense to people who hadn't memorized the schematics of the place as thoroughly as his partner had. << On it. Fury, any of your minions want to take over with the directions? >> he asks as he pushes through the door to the stairs and looks to Phil. "Try to keep up," he says then breaks into a sprint to try and reach Skye as fast as he can. The problem is, with the elevators down, everyone is on the stairs, and Clint's shouts of "Make a hole," only get people out of the way so fast.

<< Got a lot of people on the stairs slowing us down. Unless Skye's crawling out of here, we're going to need an update. Anyone got eyes on her? >>

Phil Coulson has posed:
As Nat calls out 27, Phil points it out to Clint as they sprint. While Phil may not be the young spry lad he used to be, he can keep up in a pinch. "Hopefully you packed a dust mask," He remarks as they get going. Trying to keep the comm channel clear for a moment, he lowers a shoulder to help clear a path through some stunned agents. "Everybody back to your stations, now!"

Iron Man has posed:
"I get that. Just another day at the office for your guys," Tony says generously, shrugging. Meaning, he'll not interfere in a direct way. Tony smiles his usual charismatic smile at Fury, an indication that he probably understands Fury's subtext just fine. He accepts the data-pad, and whistles a bit at one of the little drones, pointing at it with a few crooked fingers. The drone is attracted, floats to Tony and beeps. "MK, drop your pants for me, girl," he says to the drone. Yeah, decorum, right. The drone opens its bottom, releasing a few cords and mixed interfaces, and Tony attaches a lead to the datapad he was given. "Panty raid," he tells the drone, who immediately stops doing the other function it was doing and emits several confirmation tones and notes, as if that command had some specific meaning to it. Tony sits back down on the table, and resumes what he was doing on his smaller handheld device, nonchalant. It's a bit easier when it isn't YOUR house on fire, after all.

Quake has posed:
Skye's as blind as everyone at this point. Other than she knows what she shut down and what she didn't. Even Oracle was blind to her - a case of total trust there. it was part of the good faith deal she'd negotiated. Nothing that would compromise Oracle. In return, Skye'd elicited a promise from Fury that if it came to using that contingency, things would happen to the records. It was the best Skye could do. In the end she'd run with it.

The doors Skye is heading towards are clear across the floor from where she exited the stairwell. This was one of the trickiest portions of her flight, but it was the one that opened up all the other possibilities with the least amount of interference. The foyer would be a whole other matter - it she took that path in the end. But first Skye had to get to the other doors. Doors Skye counted on leading to clear sailing down thanks to the "Fire Doors. Do Not Open: Alarm Will Sound". Again trusting in humanity to follow protocoal and warning signs - another reason for the quiet fire supression: no alarm had sounded as yet; nobody would want to take those hallways to sound off an alarm they didn't know had already been shut off.

So far, so good. No actual pursuit. She expected that once she reached the lower floors. Thank god for admin levels like the one she was on now. If nobody questioned her being here..

Nick Fury has posed:
    Fury hears Clint's voice over the comm, right after Nat's directions. Moving to the other side of where Stark was standing which happened to be in front of the panel with comms, Fury taps a button. "Agent Barton. That's one of the reasons why Agent Coulson is there. He can point you in the right direction. Now cut the chatter."

    Fury looks at the Level 5 at the Ops Console, who shakes his head negative at Clint's question. Tapping the button again, hard, Fury says, "No. Looks like she has set up a cascade failure of surveillance systems up here." A short pause. "Agent Romanova is your eyes, gentlemen. I suggest you pick up the pace. Agent Romanova, you are the quarterback." Turning off the comms again, Fury taps his near invisible ear piece, putting it on monitor.

    Watching as Stark gets to work on his "panty raid", Fury places his hands on his hips, and shakes his head. "I see you left your manners at the door, Stark. It's a wonder most of your employees aren't retired on al the money from all those harrassment claims I expect they file against you every day."

Black Widow has posed:
There is a moment of silence then a "Copy that." Natasha isn't pleased. If he wants the systems online, she needs to be condentrating on them. Instead she has to split her attention. She works through the failing systems and manages to curtail a few only to have more tumbling, like dominoes in a series. Skye did her homework. She's put them in a bad situation. She manages to get two systems online though. One of which is the intercoms in the building.

"Agents on the stairwell, get out of the way of Agents Coulson and Barton. If you don't know who they are, hit the wall and stay there until you are told otherwise. All agents, Agent Skye Johnson is to be detained. If you see her in your area, please stop her. Do not harm her in any way. Only force necessary to detain her until Agents Coulson and Barton arrive. If you see her, call out." But she's not done with that as she continues to fight the code while speaking. "If you don't know who Agent Johnson is, it's simple. If there is someone in your area who does not belong, stop them."

Oracle has posed:
It's perhaps worse than Nat realizes. The ghost in the system in this instance isn't Skye herself... and she's made arrangements with the actual ghost to help her. Oracle's left no fingerprints in SHIELD's systems, her ephemeral presence literally nothing more than a blip that few would ever notice. The intercoms go live and Agent Romanov's voice blares through the complex, the message working to the invisible digital presence's advantage -- her job here is to sow confusion and disarray. To get Agent Johnson out.

To that end, Oracle slips through the systems, continuing to toss random bits of code into Nat's way. A bit of code here to disable an alarm on a door is buried within a worm that blazes through the complex's interconnected camera arrays where the Hamster Dance starts playing, covering Skye's egress through that portal into another section. And while no one is looking, she also tweaks the cascading failure a bit just to make sure that nothing catastrophic will happen as Skye makes her way through the building.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Coulson's command gets people moving out of the way and the two of them make it down to the R&D level, Clint practically rips open the door then sprints into the hallway. Of course Skye was long gone. He pulls up short, looking this way and that, as if that was going to help. "Fury. Coulson's down here with me, how the hell is he going to find Skye," he says before the comms to Fury go dead.

Nat's voice takes its place. Giving orders and putting out the call to all the agents in the building to keep an eye out for Skye.

"Let's hope they listen," Clint says about the use of force. Though with ICERs being standard issue. He was probably worrying over nothing.

<< Nat. Get them to close the bridge, and put people at the hanger, the roof and residence A4. >> With those obvious ways out of the Trisk shut down it just left the other sort. "Coulson, you're all up in Fury's secrets, want to show me how you'd get off this island if you had to?"

The Admin level Skye was on was quiet. Then there was a buzz of radio static, and a pair of security men round the corner. Spotting Skye, they don't recognize her at first, hey the benefits of being looked at as the IT girl, though as they approach one of them says, "Agent, we're going to need to see your ID."

Phil Coulson has posed:
"I know of a route or two, but you aren't going to like them," Phil remarks, "One of them requires us to use a laundry chute, the other simply requires access." He is able to make good time as they hurry through the individuals.

Quake has posed:
Thing about looking like the IT girl.. yeah. Skye got away with a lot. And today, her usual gear was missing. No satchel. No handheld. Nothing that screamed the usual about Skye. In fact, she was actually carrying an ICER. Total non-Skye going on here.

Not that Skye knows it, but Oracle has stepped in. That's okay, that's not her department anymore. Skye just has to get from point A to point B.

Or course Nat has now become a bigger problem, putting the intercoms back on line. All causing Skye to wince. "Fuck. That wasn't supposed to happen yet. And not her. She's supposed to be making sure that fucking killswitch isn't thrown."

All of which Oracle can hear. Along with the request for Skye's ID as not ten feet from the very door she needs, Skye's accosted by some paper pushing neophyte who actually listens to directives. Who listens to directives?

There's a reason Skye had packed the ICER, but honestly, that would open up a whole other can of worms she didn't want to embrace at this moment in time.

"Could use a little..."

And the floor she's on goes black. That gives Skye what she needs to hit that door, and then the stairwell. Then it's two floors down and next decisions. With Nat's little trick, the Foyer and merely waltzing out was looking less and less likely.. She might have to go for the real nitty and gritty of exits: service entries and the like.

Coulson and Clint's path is made a lot easier by Nat's orders. Of course now they have Oracle's twitchy little fingers to deal with too.

Iron Man has posed:
"Any decorum I had, I replaced a long, long time ago with far more compelling attributes," Tony Stark replies, upbeat, to the /totally undeserved/ comments from Director Fury. "It's been working out, we have a good time at the Tower. Say, I haven't seen you at any of my parties. Invitations still stand, though," Tony continues, in his usual way of talking a little bit more than necessary. He's not terribly busy, as he's just sort of snooping around, and can chatter freely and obnoxiously while working on something like this, since he isn't really devoting even ten percent of his attention to it, not really. More good reasons to keep Tony occupied. The 'panty raid' drone, MK, beeps and Tony turns to the datapad Fury had given him to see what the drone was notifying him about.

Tony is further than he would have been without the access from Fury, plus his little drone is helping out. But he hasn't shown any presence himself yet: though Oracle may or may not be aware that some access holes are being looked at, though the window of notice is very small indeed; the little drone is quick and cursory, nothing special here, /really/...! But hey, lights off in a weird area, gotta look at where that order came from... which could lead to an interesting little chase.

Nick Fury has posed:
    Fury notes that Ops was pretty much out of the picture. Except for his direct feed that was, strangely enough, bug free. Fury is also listening...ah, the Ghost in the Shell was here. She could help if necessary. With a quick nod, he went back to monitoring things close up.

    Ignoring Clint's barb, and focusing on how close they were. Fury smiles. "That's it Phil. Use the "shortcut". If I know you, you'll pick that one..." Fury nods.

    Now, who else might be close...Skye handles the personnel checking IDs the easy way. What else?

    Ah, the 5 man elite Spec Ops Team that was just coming back from a training exercise...early. "Well, that is a curve..." Fury says, under his breath as they came in through the Underground Access Level. "Something to avoid..."

    That was when Fury notices Stark was talking to him. Turning to look down at Stark, Fury shakes his head, and regards the man with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I appreciate that Mr. Stark. Maybe I 'll take in the next party. I hear they are explosive." Fury notices Stark gets quiet, and nods. Stark was working through the problem. Of course he was.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"I can live with the laundry chute for a moment there I thought you were going to tell me we had to go through a trash compactor or something," Clint says as he follows along with Phil. Turns out the laundry chute is closest. "So, what we go down and it takes out of the building or is that just stage one?" regardless it does put them close to those service entrances Skye had been heading for.

On the admin floor, the lights go out, the guards shout in surprise and the door Skye flees through, gets painted with blue splotches as ICER rounds impact it a moment after she's gone. While they miss, they do radio in before following into the stairwell. << Possible contact on Admin 4. Subject is in stairwell 12. >>

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein was here, of all things, to put in an order for some night vision goggles that would actually fit him. That whole business in the safe house with the mutant convinced him he had to get at least a FEW upgrades. Unfortunately, he was not at the human end of his spectrum and lumbered in through the sub basement door, large and scary looking with the occasional flash of green emergency light. And then the lights went out.

Frankenstein looked around and grunted. "Really?" Except it came out more like "rrrrrrrly?" He moved towards sounds and then spots Agent Coulson and Agent Barton. They've likely been briefed about his status but that doesn't make him look less ominous in the light.

Black Widow has posed:
<Hanger and garage are locked down. No vehicles leaving. Apartment also. Rooftop doors secure. Bridge to the Triskelion is being retra...correction, it won't retract. The lobby doors will not lock down.> Natasha reports over the comms. She continues to work the systems but as fast as she gets one up, another goes down.

She's losing. And she knows it.

A round of Russian cursing comes over the comms. "I had security cameras online but they crashed again." She continues to piece together the code from Skye then fires off counters in the lines of programming. Until another system comes up...then goes down. "Get additional units to the lobby. It may be a false lead but no chances."

Oracle has posed:
//Could use a little...// Bah. Skye must really think this is Oracle's first rodeo? The lights go down in Skye's hallway and 14 other ones as well. The fire alarms blare on three floors suddenly for no apparent reason. And the sprinklers on the executive levels are now spraying their payload all over people's desk. The Hamster Dance continues on its merry way across all security monitors... and the ghost in the machine flashes from point to point on a rapid, random series of digital hops.

It's by accident that she almost does something really nasty to Tony's drone. Ooooooh. That could be trouble. She fires off a couple of decoy programs to tease the drone -- almost like funhouse mirrors within the system, distorted reflections of itself scuttling through the data.

Oracle's tap into the internal security lets her monitor Coulson and Barton's locations on her end while not allowing Agent Romanov's console to see that information. HAMSTER DANCE! The cool digital voice that comes through the SpecOps team's radios is gender-neutral as it reports, "Agent Johnson is believed to have obtained an image inducer. Last known image utilized: Agent Phil Coulson on the Admin 4. Capture and detain."

Then she removes the code that runs the intercom systems completely so that even radios don't work and makes it look like the virus ate it. One eye is warily keeping track of Tony Stark's drone, another is watching the virus's progress itself, and yet another -- because she's Oracle, she has eyes all over her head!! -- is keeping track of moving people.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"Understood," Phil notes and begins making his way towards the secret way until the lights go out. "Outstanding," He grumbles, and flips on a flashlight. "Follow me," Phil gets towards the secret entrance and opens a storage closet and moves a few shelves out of the way to get to the secret entrance, "This should be what we are looking for, better than dealing with dirty laundry."

Iron Man has posed:
Incidentally, Tony doesn't agree with the choice of hamster dance alone or the volume (or lack thereof). He switches it. And it goes up to 11. "WHOOOOOAAAA, WE'RE HALFWAY THERE..." Screams Bon Jovi instead of just dancing hamsters. Who the hell the audio is encouraging to Live on the Prayer may be unclear. Might be aimed at the ghostly Oracle, might be Nat: Well, Tony's pretty sure whoever that is will have ALL the comm units open, and that might be loud. Both sides might think the song's message is aimed at them. So uplifting.

No, Tony really isn't doing anything useful to either 'side.' He's playing by Fury's rules: in a sense, not directly invading anything, just throwing out a 'ping' to see what the other players do. The drone falls down the funhouse of mirrors, baffled for now, (Oracle succeeds!) while Tony is elsewhere, his drone his own personal cover. No, hacking isn't his main thing, by any means, but unpredictable? Tony is that. But the drone's mirror-maze does, unfortunately, cause a blind-side for Tony as well.

Quake has posed:
Skye's on the run, down the stairs. Heading down further than she'd initially planned. Then again, thinking on the fly was kind of what she did around here. She didn't have a box. It was one of the things Fury liked about her. Well, for some value of liked.

The only exit off this stairwell opened onto Housekeeping... which connected up to hallways that led to the garage levels.

Meanwhile, Nat's got a problem. While she's been tending to other things, Skye's program is ticking merrily away. It's tweaked from its former iteration (Skye wasn't going to be that nice to Nat!) but it's recognizable. It's just going to take attention, and some hands on here and there to keep it in line until she can get it shut down.

Nick Fury has posed:
    They almost got her. Amazing. Coulson and Barton were good. Very good. And if Skye hadn't brought in outside help in the form of Oracle, Nat would have had her already. This was cutting in close...and now, another random curve to the whole thing - Frankenstein! "Never a dull moment. Good thing we expunged all those Hydra Agents a few months ago...this would not have been a good time for them to pull their shi*."

    That last was mostly to himself, but sideways at Stark as well as the volume goes up to 11! Now what was he up to...Fury was sure Stark knew something was going on, a game within a game. Plus, it was always hard having to keep one on on the game, one eye on Stark, and one eye on Ops. Man, he needed three eyes! One wasn't cutting it! Maybe he could borrow some of Oracle's eyes.

   

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint is being pulled every which way at once. The bridge won't retracted, the lobby is vulnerable, they've got this passage here and one other Skye could be at. Plus his mind was hammering away at a million questions, most of those questions coming down to simply why? Why was Skye doing this? By now the computer chaos confirmed this was more than a misunderstanding.

Maybe Rising Tide?

Didn't matter, he had to find her and that meant the passage. He takes the shelves as Phil passes them too him and the looks down the tunnel. "Alright, so this takes us where?" he asks before something big with glowing 'eyes' lurches from the darkness.

Clint raises his weapon, "Stop right there!" he shouts. Even in the faint light of the goggles, he's able to draw a bead on Franks' head. Anywhere but here, he'd have fired first, but he knew SHIELD kept some of its weirder agents in the lower levels.

There's the sound of a door opening in the darkness behind then. "Coulson, six o'clock," he says. It'll be hard to see much in the darkness of the laundry area without night vision like Frank has, but Clint's voice is unmistakable.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil looks toward Frank and aims his ICER, "Stop there, hands in the air where we can see them." Phil's voice has gone full official. "Who are you and what is your business?"

Black Widow has posed:
Everything she brings up goes back down. Now there is no intercom or communications units. Which is a bad thing for coordination. She is no longer able to try to help those on the ground. The good news, she can focus on the code itself. It's the Hydra attack code that Skye had developed. Natasha has been on both sides of that code. She knows it is beyond her levels. Throw in that Skye modified some of it. Yet she continues to work, scanning through lines of code at blazing speed as she picks up bits and pieces then throws them into her own lines of programming. She just has to build a counter or...

She blinks rapidly at the lines she just isolated. That's bad. That is very bad. Her fingers never slow as she takes that bit, sets it aside and begins to work on taking it apart piece by piece. If she can get her lines built properly, she'll be able to fire them into the system. It's just taking too long and more systems are failing. She refuses to look at those, concentrating on the main problem.

Oracle has posed:
Oracle is about the only one who hears "Living on a Prayer" blast through -- she's cut the code that feeds the comms. But it makes Barbara Gordon laugh out loud in her Clocktower, for certain. And then, just because she knows the code in that drone pretty well -- some of her own bits are StarkTech, after all -- she tweaks what //he// did and turns it into "Carry On Wayward Son." Much better music. She lets that blast through on Volume 11 back into the command center.

Meanwhile, with so many people on the move and Nat's attention clearly now on the virus that Oracle was half-watching, it opens the way for Barbara to do her dirty work. Opening doors, feeding Skye her exit route, and getting the other woman out of the Triskelion //with// her precious cargo. Only when she's sure the other agent is in the clear will she begin to take some of the pressure off Nat by helping backstop the failing systems so that the Agent can deal intently with whatever the code that Skye threw in there is -- it's not something Oracle's seen before, and based on what she's seeing Nat do, the other woman has experience with unraveling it.

She's impressed as hell at the agents in the building, though. And with a better understanding of some of their capabilities, she makes a few personal notes on who //not// to cross anytime in the future. And what with Melinda May making overtures in Gotham, she's going to be keeping a pretty close eye on her back doors. The ones Stark noted and the ones that no one can see.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein hadn't been ignoring the gibbering in his ear, but...well he had enough voices inside of his head to drive anyone crazy so he was used to it. He just chalked it up to more noise but then he was hearing something about an escaped agent and part of him wondered if he recognized the two guys pointing guns at him. Great. Didn't they have like a Shieldbook site or something. Maybe he could start a news letter of "new people not to shoot this month." Oh.

And he didn't speak english real good right now. He could probably take enough shots to take them out but the SHADE database plus the memories told himat least one if not both these guys were Level Stratophhere so he raised his hands, "rrrr r r rr r r r r r r r raaaaaand raaaagent rrrrrrrrrrrrrlp rin" this would take hours at this rate. So he just rolled his eyes and said "rrrrrrield"....he also kept an eye out for Skye.

Iron Man has posed:
"If she takes my helicopter, I'll be unhappy. ...But so would she, really," Tony observes aloud, weighing Fury a little bit, attention going to the Director. Tony is fishing, and what he pulls from Fury's face is enough. Tony is indeed aware he has not been given any real go-ahead here, just to LOOK. So, he has access. Why give access and then nothing else? To be on deck but not 'utilized', odd. So things are going the way Fury wants them to. Which is interesting. But a fun game still, even with this added layer. Tony yawns a little, hunting through his pockets, finding some ... bleh, trail mix. It'll have to do.

"More than one critter in this maze," Tony says aloud idly. And then smiles to himself, and addresses the drone's issues, untangling it. And as the music changes, Oracle will pick up that his snooping saw that much... and has simply hung back, on purpose. Not prying anymore. She's got no interference from the Stark side, going forward.

Quake has posed:
The hunt for Phil Coulson is on. Especially on Admin 4 where nobody is quite certain just who it was that got away, or who they were supposed to be looking for. Was it Phil disguised as Skye? Or Skye disguised as Phil? Some of them just went back to their desks and pretended none of this had happened. What they didn't know they wouldn't have to worry about, right?

Meanwhile, Nat should be noticing something about the code she's facing. Sure, it's been tweaked since she last saw it, but there's a certain symmetry to what Skye did. And eventually, it should become plain that Nat's seem the bits, only in different form. Again, with a nod to Hammerfall, and their prep work, the attack has bits of Nat's own code thrown in. Once Nat recognizes that, it should be simpler sailing to shut it down.

Which should untimately help Oracle out. With Nat's attenion focused and productive, Oracle can deal with just making sure Skye gets out. There's a certain little van that should be waiting now that things have gone to this contingency.

As for the boys, well, Phil is going to have to explain himself at some point, until someone clears up that little misconception that oracle spread. Ooops, right? Plus there's Frankie in front of them.

The way they're all situated, they're on opposite sides of the same room. And it's not all that hard for the foursome to see one another, only Skye hasn't time for dillydallying. She's got to make it to that last doorway and then the short jaunt to the garage. Driving out might be a challenge, but given how things have gone so far, she's pretty certain her back has been had and Oracle will make that happen too. No hope for Gretel, though. She'll have to be ditched. Such a shame, Skye loves that van.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint blinks at Frank. "Whoa, what are you trying to say?" he asks the guy, but seeing as he hasn't attacked yet, Clint lowers his gun and glances behind him. That's when he sees her.

"Skye!" he says, and turns his back towards Frank. A bad move, one someone is probably going to take him to task for. "Stop!" he shouts at her, but his gun stays by his side. He begins to follow chase her as she moves towards the door to the garage. Only to have another door open and men in tac gear sweep in, from the opposite side of the room, having come down from Admin 4. "There she is," they say and point their weapons at Phil. "Everyone stay where you are!" they storm towards Frank, Clint and Phil, weapons raised ready to shoot.

Clint makes a dash for Skye, one of the other agents fires a warning shot. He freezes, not able do more than watch as Skye makes a run for the door.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein doesn't get a lot of what is going on, but recognizes Skye especially when Clint flat out says its her. He knows there must be some kind of mistake and doesn't trust computers that much, so these guys have probably been tricked. No problem.

He makes a mad dash at Skye, likely drawing fire and doing the exact opposite of being frozen, rounds slamming into him as he leaps into the air right after her, but the drugs are potent, and while his system can reject them, the surge of electricaly induced adrenalin sends him through the wall and into the next, where he falls, stunned.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil keeps his ICER aimed at Frankenstein to provide cover for Clint, but that is cut short when the others arrive and aim at Phil, "Uh, great." He elects to be smart and sets his ICER on the ground and backs up three feet, his back against the wall.

Quake has posed:
Clint was not what Skye wanted to deal with. It was the worst outcome of this whole thing. Him chasing her down with that confusion in his face. He didn't even draw a weapon.

The look Skye gives him is apologetic. "I wish you didn't make me do this," she tells him, shaking her head. Really, she'll kick herself for this one later, but it is the only way to solve all sorts of issues, and, as she'd told Fury, make it all believable.

While Clint doesn't draw his weapon, Skye does, and as she's proven before, she's not a bad hand with it. Clint is hit straight on with the ICER, leaving her only enough time to turn tail and flee before tactics nabs her.

she makes it to the door to the garage just in time. The door opening with a *click* before her, and then, immediately after her, locks, keeping security from following. Gretel at the wait.

It's tight, but Skye manages, fleeing SHIELD with maybe not her dignity intact, but with the goods, ditching the van somewhere along the way and taking other modes of transport to one of the safehouses she knows she can stop and leave a message for Miles at Rising Tide. Phase One, Tidepool: Complete.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint's eyes round when the shot lands when she says those words. He didn't expect it. He reaches for his gun, but she has a head start and he's hit before his gun clears the holster. There is a moment before ICER round takes effect and Clint uses that moment to try and fire back finally believing that Skye had some how, inexplicably turned.

If she was ever on their side to begin with.

The gun doesn't raise, his arm feels numb and heavy, then his body then his face and then darkness and he hits the floor unconscious.

The tac team fires off a burst at the door, two of them chasing Skye while the others take charge of Clint and Coulson. The door Skye went through? Suddenly locked. The tac team guys kick it down but too late to stop Skye. r
Later, when things are sorted out, they have a lot of crow to eat when it turns out they arrested the real agent Coulson and let Skye escape.