(2014-06-01) Metallo 1
Metallo 1
Summary: Strangely compliant thugs attempt to rob a jewelry store non-lethally. Susanna and Tony Stark respond to the silent alarm. Stark fires the first shot, setting off a chain reaction that sets the store ablaze. Metallo is revealed and escapes.
Date: 2014-06-01
Related:
NPCs: Metallo
Scene Runner:

Aerial

Social/Plot: Plot
Players:

Ultragirl, Iron Man

Crystal Collections is something of a mix between a jewelry store and a museum, in between the arts and financial districts. Small trinkets and sculptures are carved of valuable gemstones and put on display with a high price tag, in addition to the regular rings and necklaces and such. Today there's a pair of large white windowless vans parked out front though. A quiet day of business as usual ends as both sets of van doors open and men with high-tech silvery handheld weapons and some kind of scanner rush the front door. "Everyone against the wall!" One of them fires a blue pulse from their weapon and it makes a sort of electrical crackle and sonar whine. The victim they've made an example of slumps in place, and gets pushed back out of the way. It's an effective dmeonstration that gets the other five customers in the store and three employees moving. One of them does find time to press the silent alarm though.

Susanna Sherman was in Metropolis sight seeing. It isn't hard for the college student to get around the country and so she decided to take the day off coming to The City of the Future. This does have her passing down the street. She is a distance off but seeing the guys that look like they have weapons leave the vans and enter the store. She looks around a bit and then ducks into an alley to change into her outfit, well, not much to do. She wears it under her clothes, just has to throw the mask on. It isn't long before she is leaving the alley and heading towards the front of the Collections. She is wearing a green mini skirt, knee high boots, tight fitting halter top with a UG in the center and a green cape. A mask covers her eyes and upper face a bit.

Not too far away, in Stark's Metropolis office. Tony is taking a meeting with his financial team, going over some numbers. His phone chirps in his pocket as his body man and driver Happy Hogan sits by the door flipping through an issue of Maxim. Next to him, is a brief case. Very avant garde, this briefcase. One of those metallic briefcases. Silver and red, kinda futuristic. Every few seconds, Happy looks at it as if he's expecting it to do something.
Tony fishes his StarkPhone out of his jacket's inner pocket and looks at it. A message reds: "Crystal Collections is being robbed. I wouldn't normally bother you with a daylight robbery, but this is a profile 1 target, and one you've flagged in the area as a possible hot spot. I've done my due diligence sir, perhaps it is time to do yours? - J"
Tony sighs. Smartass AIs, why did he impart that into JARVIS? Oh, because the real article isn't much different.
Tony stands up and says, "Great job everybody, but why don't we break for lunch." he looks around, gives a glance to Happy, "I need to take a bit of a walk, stretch my legs..let's say, two hours?" he says already walking over towards his driver. "I'll be needing that." he says, and snags the briefcase by the handle as he heads out of the office. No time for the elevator. Let's take the stairs. Time? Not yet..one thing he learned from his recent retreat with the fine folks from SHIELD, is that recon pays. Seconds later, he's on the street and heading towards the shop, just a couple of blocks down. There'll be plenty of time to be flashy. Now's the time to be sneaky.

Two of the men secure hostages with zip ties. They're organized, but not professional. Likely, someone gave them very detailed instructions about what to do and drilled it into them by rote. Two are lurking on either side of the front door. Two are working the alarm system. "Ah, they tripped it already. Well, I've cut the bells." Two are working the jewelry stands. They force the cases open and start shoveling the goods into bags. Two more are in back, "She's not here." Another two seem to be in charge. Everyone in pairs. Everyone. "Right," one of the boss-pair says to the grabbing-pair, "if it's green make sure it scans. Bwee-ooh means it's ours, don't mix it with the rest." A radio crackles, "Cape. Front." The vans start to roll away from the store.

Susanna Sherman blinks for a moment as the vans pull off and might have gone after them but then Ultragirl remembers that the guys inside had the weapons. Whatever they are. She glides to the front of the store and just hovers outside, "Throw down your weapons and come out." she calls out into the store. She isn't expecting them to, but there is always a chance.

The ones on either side of the door stay in place with their weapons, "This is a bad place for a brawl! If you rush in, people will get hurt! You stay out there!" The two who were previously tying up the hostages raise their arms, and slowly bend down to -- very carefully, and certainly not throwing -- place their weapons on the floor. In a placating gesture, they start to walk towards Ultragirl. Calmly, slowly, "We'll surrender to you, but you have to stay outside. Back up a bit and we'll come out a few at a time. Hostages first, perhaps?" The others keep work in the back. One of the jade statues makes a noise as it's scanned, the sudden squeal of a Geiger counter. "Hey boss, got one!" It gets handed over to the in-charge pair. Behind the store, the vans are pulling up again after having circled the block.

Susanna Sherman stays hovering outside. She nods, "Hostages first, yeah that will work." she is a bit airheaded sometimes still new to all of this heroing. But hostages being released sounds like a good idea.

The two surrendering goons move and lift their unconscious example victim, carrying him to the front door. "He's not hurt, but he'll be disoriented and have a headache when he wakes. It should wear off in about eight hours or so." They go back for another hostage, one at a time, selecting those who could cause them the most trouble, or who have the least value as a hostage, drawing it out. In the back, an emerald ring squeals under the scanner. "Got another." The boss man takes it, and has a quick chat with the guys in back, whispering something into the radio. The radio responds, "Don't cause trouble. I'll handle it." A shell game was played, for those with keen eyes. The two men who return no longer have the jade statue or the emerald ring. The two men who were in back, quietly slip out the back to the vans.

Some days you just can't get to a robbery.
Walking down the street, as casually as one can when you're Tony Stark, making it two blocks might as well be two miles. He gets stopped a few times or selfies, gets passed a number, passes his number off, before finally muttering to himself, "Screw this." and then ducks into an alley.
All he needs is six seconds.
"I feel like such a cliche right now. Really. I'm being docked points and I don't even know it."
Tony steps on the trigger mechanism on the suit case. He then thrusts his hands into the gauntlets that are beginning to form. Extending his arms, The chest plate attached has already begun forming itself around his body. Seconds later, the formation complete, the faceplate clanks into place and the suit powers up. He then rises up and out of the alley, clearing the rest of the distance to the store in seconds, and hovers above the roof as he starts to get onto local comms and Law Enforcement frequencies.

Susanna Sherman is out front overseeing the hostages coming out and not even realizing there is stuff going on out the back of the store.

The bulk of the precious shinies are being offloaded out the back while Savanna is distracted with hostage release. Hostages have to file out one by one, get cleared of their sip ties, and she still has one that she has to watch because they're out cold. The bosses in charge are leaving out the back, and the two vans start to pull away. Remaining in the store now are eight: the two by the front door, the two who handled the electronics, the two who handled hostages and surrendered (their weapons on the floor by the display cases), and the two who had been bagging the gems.

Oh, he just can't resist. Guys escaping out of the back? Really?? Isn't there a Scooby Gang nearby? Oh well..
Tony makes a loop and lands between the bosses and their mode of escape, and raises both of his hands as the repulsors whine up to speed. "I'm sorry," Tony's digitized voice says, "I'm going to have to see a receipt before I can let you leave the store."

Susanna Sherman is focused on the hostages still, "WE could go a bit faster, and then you can surrender, I don't want to have to start a fight." she doesn't but she is all for it if she has to.

The two guys who were in the back of the store have already entered one van by the time Tony drops down between them, but the two who were acting as boss stop and raise their arms in surrender. "Don't blast us! Please!" Then the radio crackles. "Iron Man," speaks the voice, "Show him your gun." One of the bosses look confused for a moment, then with exaggerated caution regards Tony and raises his gun, not pointing it. Sensors are giving off all kinds of alarms, like unstable, and explosive, and chain reaction. It's high-tech, and expendable. The goons respond to Savanna's complaint about the speed with fearful worry, "Yeah, that's all the hostages. We're coming out now." The two guys in the van get out and also put up their arms to surrender to Tony. And then the van they were in peels away quickly.

Tony Stark switches one hand to point at the back of the van, and the repulsor fires a medium blast aimed towards the bottom of the vehicle to stop it. The other stays squarely on the surrendering crooks, "So, let's see. Unstable. explosive. Likely to cause a chain reaction, and I'm better there's not even a return policy. Lemme guess -- Hammer tech? Do me a favor and put it down. Put. It all. Down."

Susanna Sherman cocks her head to the side, "Come on out and lie face down on the sidewalk, hands behind your head," she is hoping that the police show up soon, she might just have to call them. She keeps an eye and looks in the store to make sure she has them all, and others aren't inside with guns still.

They're surrendering their guns one by one, being overly cautious in how they set them down. Soon, all eight of the goons in the front are under Savanna's watchful eye, putting up no fight. It's not much longer before the cops come, and the goons are already putting their hands up behind their backs. "So how long?" "Two three days, he said." Then they're quiet again. Until the repulsor beam knocks the bottom of the moving van, and it rocks, then the back bursts into flames concussively. The four men surrendering to Stark quickly hurl their weapons at him, and upwards, but mostly upwards, as they scramble backwards from the exploding van. A few second later, their weapons explode too, showering Iron Man in smoke and flame. Inside the store, the pile of surrendered weapons goes off as well, setting the place ablaze.

Susanna Sherman doesn't really have anything that can put out fires, "We need fire trucks." she calls out as she looks at the store, not wanting it to be destroyed. Thoughts run through her head at this point, why blow up the shop, they had already surrendered. She still doesn't realize there is more going on out back.

Tony Stark makes his way to the van, and without any fanfare rips off one of the rear doors. "Well, what do we got in here, hmm??"

The goons who surrendered to Susanna roll with the blast and scramble back to their feet, both them and the cops retreating from the blast... but the goons don't take the opportunity to run. They stick by the cops who are there to arrest them. Fire trucks are en route, as the cops contact dispatch. "Tried to tell you this wasn't the time for a brawl," one of the goons sighs. Back with Iron Man, the four who surrendered to him do start to flee, taking chunks of the loot with them. The inside of the van is... techy. Silvery and covered in conduits and cables. Radiation warnings and green light. And a robotic torso with a terminator style metal skull on top, and an open chestplate where green chips are fusing into a lump. The chest slams shut to block out the green light, and the eyes of the skull light up green. The voice from the radio speaks in person, "I really tried, you know? To design a plan so nobody would get hurt. It seems I underestimated your ruthlessness. Nice suit. Think it will fit me?" While the conduits from the van reach their silver tendrils towards Tony, the torso and skull burn a hole through the bottom of the van and through the roadway with lasers, and vanish into the sewer below.

Tony Stark moves back, taking himself out of the range of the tendrils, silver armor scorched black in places from the blast. "Sorry..uh..thing, is it? You look like a thing. Anyway, it's a one off, probably doesn't come in your size. Besides, you look like you're doing pretty well to me." he says from within the helm, as the HUD is already locking on multiple targets on the tendrils, mini-missile pods raising from shoulders, preparing to fire on his mark.

The tendrils draw back off the inside of the van and away from Stark, "Call me Metallo. I didn't come here to fight. Not today. Take good care of my men, if you can catch them. Or maybe you'll want to stop the fire before someone gets hurt." The tendrils start to just rust away, leaving the van more or less intact aside from the soot and ash. Metallo is gone.

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