(2014-07-06) Golden Swarm of Thieves
Golden Swarm of Thieves
Summary: A swarm of impossibly fast speedsters are stealing from a secret US Mint in New York City. Apparently, they've already downed Power Woman. Miss Marvel, The Flash, and Kyani respond.
Date: 2014-07-06
Related: None
NPCs: Mysterious speedster swarm (who are all costumed to look like Negative Flash / Professor Zoom)
Scene Runner: Power Woman
Social/Plot: Plot
Players:
power-woman..miss-marvel..the-flash..kyani..

There are no explosions. No people running for their lives, screaming their heads off. No giant light shows. In point of fact, there's nothing at all that outwardly says anything untoward is going on. Nothing. Except the blurs. And the comm message.

To anyone with normal human perceptions, there's virtually nothing to see. But if one is capable of incredible speeds, then one can perceive that is moving so fast the human eye - and the digital camera - cannot. Blurs. Blurs that resolve, if one ramps up one's own speed, into figures. Human figures. Dozens of them. And they're all streaking through the streets of New York City at incredible speed, blurring around the traffic, pedestrian and vehicular, as if everything and everyone were standing still.

Each of the figures looks identical: a golden, metallic bodysuit with lightly armored shoulders and chest, and a full cowl mask covering the head, neck, and upper half of the face. The suits are seemingly seamless, a single piece construction that includes the boots, delineated only by the jagged red lines at mid-calf, which echo others at waist, and a larger one across the chest.

The figures blur hither and yon, but one location resolves in common amongst all of this excitement: an office tower with a large underground parking structure in the midst of many others in the Lower Manhattan area.

The comm signal is weak, staticy, and difficult to make out. But to anyone with a League communicator, it relays. And most importantly, it has an identifier embedded as coming from Power Woman's comm unit. "— city Mint. Sub-basement of -- don't know -— dozens of them, moving so fast -- Repeat, priority alert -—-"

With Supergirl gone to Virginia for the week and school being out for the summer, Mary Bromfield had enrolled in numerous "Advanced Summer Ed." camps at Empire State University. Unbeknownst to her parents, she's spending her free time and all her nights up at the Watchtower as Miss Marvel, taking on extra Monitor Duties in order to keep an eye on a certain blonde. Is Miss Marvel inappropriately using League equipment? Of course not. She keeps an open channel and satellite over Virginia while making sure to scan all other frequencies for trouble. One such frequency comes in from Kara's com.

After hearing the alert, and knowing that she's one of the fastest in the League, both on foot and in the air, Marvel deploys from the launch bay and speeds directly to New York City/ She slows down enough in order to not cause any damage and lands, touching the comm in her ear. "Marvel here, Power Woman. Can I get a sitrep?" She's at ground level outside the Mint building in Lower Manhattan.

35,000 miles/s. Literally as fast as she dares go. The speed at which everything begins to fray around the edges. It takes her an infinitesmally small amount of time to suit up. And then even less time to resolve… New York City… covered in Speedsters? It's a very specific problem with a very specific kind of solution… Get someone who moves fast, too, and hope they can deal with it. It's hard NOT to notice other speedsters zooming about your city.

It takes a moment of staring and head scratching to get the idea that, hey, something is going on? Then she's there, already chewing bubblegum. Guess it's time to take names? "STAND ASIDE EVILDOE-. I—- Those are REALLY gaudy costumes." Pause. "Like… Really gaudy. Seriously?" (re)

Another day of working on his speed, but lately it's something of a day by day thing for Kyani. But man the rush he gets from moving at high speeds and being able to manipulate the way he uses his speed is insane. Today though he has finished up his delivries, for him this is just a normal day. His load of deliveries has increased, still today he didn't have anything planned as in what he was going to do.

"Well lets get going." he says more to himself and starting at a jog, then fzzt…Kyani takes off. Grinning as he runs, Kyani quickly is able to move at speeds that leaves him invisible to the naked human eye. As he runs, and speeds through the city, keeping his speeds from shattering the windows of stores, but he does set off a few alarms. "Damn." he mouths to himself. But as he does, he notices gold suited people running about the same speed as he is. And well where the hell are they going? Coming off from Battery Park, Kyani begins trailing the group.

The speedsters aren't moving as a group. They are moving as a swirling mass of individuals in different directions, with different timing. They're all over the place. The only commonality seems to be that each of them passes in and out of that particular office tower at that particular address somewhere along their amazingly fast, amazingly complex and circuitous routes.

Those who follow those paths will find themselves outside the building. Those who land from the heavens above at that address will find themselves outside the building. So that means Miss Marvel, Flash, and Kyani are now probably at most within a block of each other. And they're watching a veritable flood of blurring golden forms zooming in and out of the building in a constant stream.

Across the comlink to Miss Marvel, Power Woman's still very staticy transmission continues in response, "— trapped, running -- air. — least twenty -— precious metals -— gems --" It's a really bad connection, to be sure. And there's no outward sign of the Woman of Steel. But JARVIS would confirm the signal sources as coming from beneath that building.

Interestingly enough, the golden-suited speedsters don't seem to react at all to the other very fast people around, as long as none of them get in their way.

It doesn't take the Wisdom of Solomon to figure out what's going on. "They're robbing the Mint and Power Woman is trapped.." Miss Marvel says to herself. She speaks into the com. "I'm on my way, Kara. Once you're safe we can stop the theft. You're more important, you take priority right now." She hasn't taken notice of either Flash or Kyani. She runs as fast as she can into the underground garage. "I know you're running out of air, but I need you to keep talking. I'll try to get you out as soon as possible."

Well. Nothing for it! By now, she'll be leaving a rainbow-colored streak behind as she runs, courtesy of AWESOME ribbons. Well. Awesome to her, anyway. The Flash decides to follow one of the Speedsters in, to see what they're actually achieving. Time (for speedsters) to get plenty of conversation in,"Hey, whatcha doin'? Why you all running in and out of this place? Are you up to no good? I bet you're up to no good. Multiple identical costumes usually means twinspiracy of the highest order. So come on, let's talk this out, let's 'rap'?" She even makes the little bunny-eared finger-quotes.

Well might as well follow one of the gold guys as they move. He wonders if they are able to run faster then this, but before he thinks of it, he sees a blur rushing right into the building followed by a rainbow blur. Quirking a brow, he follows one of the other golden rods into the building. As they go through their route, he looks around to see what this place is and then it hits him. "Umm…your really not supposed to be in here." he says as he taps the guy he's following on the shoulder. "You may want to leave." he suggests, "Or something bad could happen." he gives a wry smirk.

Blurring ino the underground garage, the trails of the golden speedsters start to convert visibly, showing that they all seem to follow similar parallel or overlapping paths down through the levels of the structure, all the way to the bottom, and then through what appears to be a huge vault-like door that is currently swung wide open into the garage space. It's garage-facing side is disguised, looking just like the concrete block wall of the parking structure, so it would probably blend in almost undetectably when closed. No one else would notice that it is also lead-lined.

Chatting at the golden blurs doesn't gain any reaction. However, when Kyani taps one on the shoulder, he immediately spins and sweeps an arm out in what could be a vicious, even murderous clothesline maneuver. Not that he can't avoid it, but the guy makes the attempt and it's scary mostly because there's no change of expression, no other sign of recognition.

Through the giant vault door is a short sloping passageway that curves down, a one-way passage big enough for a heavy armored vehicle that leads to another parking structure-like space that must be beneath that bottom level. Another vault door here stands wide open, an armored car inside with all its doors open. And there are signs here, like US seals and flags and such, that make it clear this is apparently a government facility.

The blurs continue through a loading dock door and down a short hallway to another massive vault door. This one leads to an actual vault, with a rapidly evaporating content of bundles of US cash, gold, silver and platinum bars, and gatherings of other materials including racks of trays of various precious gems.

Down this far, a new signal starts reaching Miss Marvel's communicator, this one a direct connection signal instead of one bounced off League satellites. "It's getting really difficult to keep talking. The others in here are already unconscious. I hope you can get here soon, Miss Marvel."

Miss Marvel knows she's getting close, as the signal is stronger. "I should be there momentarily." She says as she continues down the path. She tries to shout, hoping that Kara's super-hearing will be able to hear her. She shuts off the input to the comm, allowing her to hear Kara but not for the mic to pick up. "Kara! Can you hear me!" She's too far underground for JARVIS to help with a schematic, and there's no time for that. She tries to develop a map in her mind of the places that she's seen, trying to extrapolate where the vault would be.

The Flash knows nothing about Power Woman's difficulty alright. No. All she knows is that these guys seem to be stealing money and are really very fast and not friendly. Thus, she decides to act. In a small way. Ever seen someone going high-speed go sprawling at that high speed? She has! And it sucks, even if your power shields you from the worst a bit. Spying her fellow speedster, she calls out,"You workin?" She takes him as friendly just because he doesn't look like the other blurs currently emptying a vault. "Watch my back? We need to figure out where this stuff is going."

Her reaction is thusly very simple. She waits until one of them is about to go into the vault… and sticks her foot out in front of their path at the last moment.

Kyani sees the clothesline coming and ducks beneath the golden rods arm. He notices that there is no facial recognition at all. Quickly he fakes like he is going to charge into him as he sees a desk near him and the other speedster hoping to see if the guy goes for teh fient and if he does. Well that will be a brutally painful way to stop and at their speeds, he wouldn't be stopping until he hits soemthing solid.

Looking up when he hears The Flash, he smiles at her and moves to flank behind her, keeping the guy she is running with between them, but keeping out of sight. When she goes to trip him, he dodges away from the guy. "Alright, got ya covered." he says as he forms up with her.

"You're … close. Maybe … six-hundred, seven hundred feet." Kara's voice comes to Miss Marvel through the now one-way comm unit in her ear, as she shouts. With some triangulation - easy as pie for the Wisdom of Solomon - it won't take her but thirty or sixty seconds to narrow down a direction to go with that distance. Then the Mightiest Mortal Maid can zoom off down the corridors to the far side of the complex, through the massive industrial spaces of the mint and all of the robotic machines that are part of the work here. Out the other side, she reaches more secure spaces and offices, including another huge vault. This one has a strange variation on a radiation symbol on its markings. But at least she has found the location, confirmed when she shouts again and Kara, very weakly, manages to whisper into her comm unit, "Sounds … other side … door. Hurry."

The Flash's wicked move is just that - wicked. And messy. As already proven, the golden speedsters don't react to anything except direct intervention or interference. So there's no deviation until she sticks her foot out to trip that one. It's quick, and the other speedster misses it, tripping, thrown by his momentum into the air at speed, hurtling towards and into the wall.

At that range, the fact that his powers protect him only means he's not just a schmear on the back vault wall. He's a broken, unmoving heap.

That causes the other golden speedsters to immediately respond, sweeping this way and that, all moving away from the vault, sweeping in circles as they rapidly assess the fact that they are under threat. There's an almost palpable air of menace that builds as they circle, ready to explode into action with two dozen hyperfast bodies, each throwing fists at speeds that shatter the sound barrier like paper.

Kyani's feint won't bring the golden speedster he is fighting anywhere near a desk, as the desks are in offices that the speedsters aren't going through. However, there is the huge and very solid armored truck. The feint would be enough to cause the other speedster to shift position and swing again, spinning around … and that's enough to get his arm smashing into one of the open doors with a horrendous sound, part clang, part thump, and part snapping, rending bone and muscle tissue. Ow.

Miss Marvel does see the symbol and tries to make sense of it. "Possible lead. May be why Kara… Unless…" Her eyes go wide as She thinks of the possibility of Kryptonite. She grabs hold of the door and yanks it open, tossing it safely aside. The others may be unconscious, but they don't become weak and sick like Kara does. "Power Woman! Kara!" She looks around for the blonde.

She's gonna have bruises, for, like, an hour! The Flash gets a lot of speedsters piling on her all the sudden. She'd normally wince at the guy who bit the wall, but she's sort of suddenly struggling to stay ahead of many dozens of hyperfast fists. Even at her speed, she can only block so many. Once again, another thing to thank her power for. Without it, she'd probably have broken bones and holes through her instead of bruises and a bloody nose. Still, she decides to just stop taking it,"Watch out, buddy!" That's the only warning Kyani will get before she blurrs backwards, still streaming rainbows and begins circling her arms, creating a sudden and strong vortex of wind that PUSHES towards the group,"All we are is dust in the wind… Man, I gotta start bringing a S-pod with me."

Wincing, "Damn." he says as he hears more then sees what happened to the guy who tried to attack again but wasn't looking wher ehe was going. Kyani is a blur of his own, and seeing that the other golden speedsters are swarming The Flash, he breaks from where he was when she warns him to move. As she runs backwards and begins swinging her arms rapidly to create a vortex to push at the speedsters, damn shes good. He too moves to the right and begins swinging his arms to catch the ones she isn't able to, and slam into them, hopefully to catch them in a cross wind that would….he doesn't even want to think of it.

When Miss Marvel rips open the door of the vault, she will find it bathed in a sharp red light. There are about two dozen different people scattered around the vault beneath those red lights, unconscious to a one, though clearly some lasted longer than others, generally those in uniforms who were probably in better shape and able to stay active on less oxygen or having more in their bloodstream and tissues to begin with. The red-caped, white-suited form of Power Woman falls over the boundary of the door as it is tossed away, clearly having been laying against it as she was trying to stay up, to stay conscious, fighting the hypoxia and her own weakness. Given her experiences with Supergirl, Miss Marvel should be able to figure out what's wrong in this situation, though why it would have been set up here is another question.

Caught in a crosswind, the swarm of brutally-minded golden speedsters will go hurtling into walls and bounce-skittering across floors and ceilings; in this confined space the force of the winds is magnified because it doesn't dissipate much at all before being cross-funneled by the immovability of the walls. Most of the speedsters end up down the long hallway that empties out - as Miss Marvel knows - into the huge open space of the mint's industrial area. One or two more suffer unfortunate fates as they slam instead into the vault walls.

If either Flash or Kyani check on those that they dispatched earlier, they might see that they seem to be … melting. Liquifying into bubbling pools of golden goo.

Miss Marvel growls. "Red sun.." Again, she says to herself, easily lifting up Kara's form. "Hmm. You've lost weight." She says, matter-of-factly to the unconscious woman. She brings her out, sits her down, and one by one brings out the unconscious forms. "They knew you would be here." She says to Kara, not really knowing if she could hear her or not, because once the people were saved, she makes her way back to the industrial area. She tries to grab one for questioning, but doesn't hold much hope, seeing as the ones who went after Linda all melted. If nothing else, she can prove that the instances are connected. She stays with the golden bodies for now. "Hey! You two!" She shouts, probably sounding really slow to Flash and Kyani, seeing as she's not at super-speed. "We need to find where they were going with the loot!"

This is an excellent time… for Science! "Good work man!" A few bottles are produced from her backpack, goo collected in them and stowed away expertly quickly. "Hey, dude… did you see where any of them went? Try to follow them, I'm right behind you." She looks over at Miss Marvel from where she's gathering samples, stands, and shrugs,"Do you know how to track? Because that's not something I ever figured out. Best I can do is analyze this stuff they've left behind. Hopefully they haven't all melted by now." She takes off down the long hallway, though. Maybe she can catch up to them if they're not all puddles. "I need a pirate joke involving booty."

Stretching as they finish, "Whoa." he says as he looks aroudn at the bodies. He sees the bodies turning to liquid, but when Miss Marvel calls out to them, "Hold on." he says, then nodding to the Flash. He looks down the area where they blew the golden runners down. He rubs the back of his head, he doesn't have a comlink or anything to communicate, "Hey, we knocked them down this tunnel, I will meet you down there." he says as Kyani takes off down that same tunnel where Mary is and wehre they others will be coming from. "I didn't notice until I got here, sorry."

Dragged out of the area of red sun radiation, Power Woman sucks in air, filling her lungs as she shakes her head slightly, trying to clear it. Hypoxia is a mess, exacerbated when one is made much weaker than normal while also deprived of air. She doesn't really say much, right now, to clarify what happened or how, which leaves Miss Marvel and the two speedsters to figure it out.

The golden speedsters tossed down the hallway into the mint's industrial area are not, universally, already goo. A few of them are climbing up to their feet, perhaps a tad wobbly but otherwise apparently alright. But any of them that have significant injuries - more than half - are dissolving into more bubbling golden puddles of goo. There are maybe six still upright when Kyani gets down that hallway, which is about where Miss Marvel ends up, on the other end, when shouting to he and Flash.

Scooped up - if one has a proper test tube or something - the samples of the goo will stop bubbling once closed off; that seems to be a chemical reaction with the atmosphere, retarded to a stop when there is a limited atmosphere available. But it's still goo. Whatever that means.

The six golden speedsters still operational glance at the heroes, then one another, and then sprint off for the door to the hallway leading back to the loading bay door, apparently aiming to make their escape if they can.

Miss Marvel just blinks at Kyani. When the six take off, she looks back to him, shouting three words. "Shush! Follow!" and she takes off as well. She may not be as fast as Mary or Kyani but she keeps up well. Speed of Mercury and all. She hopes to at least follow them enough to give a report as to where they went. Best case scenario? They find the hideout and the loot.

And the Flash? She's on it! Once she has her samples, trailing behind the others, she tries to follow Miss Marvel and Kyani as best she can. She's starting out late. She puts one finger to her mouth to 'shush' Kyani. "This is weird…" She calls out to Miss Marvel,"Your friend gonna be okay?"

Kyani watches and seems to back off from the other six speedsters and as they make a break for it, he is about to say something when Miss Marvel tells him to be quiet and follow. He nods his head, and then he takes off. He doesn't adjust his speed for Miss Marvel or The Flash to follow him. He assumes they are able to keep up, and he begins tailing them.

The golden speedsters, unhindered, make their escape back up through the mint and the parking structure, out onto the streets of New York City's lower Manhattan. However, they are careful. Careful enough that they split up, going six different paths, forcing the heroes to choose … and then it becomes a game of 'centipede' as their trails cross with each other and with the speeding heroes. As soon as they confirm that they are in fact being followed, all six simultaneously turn and aim at the nearest solid structure, striking at full undiminished speed with resounding CRACKs, almost instantly becoming piles of bubbling golden goo. It's really rather disturbing to witness, moreso that it is done so coldly and deliberately.

Miss Marvel nods to Flash. "Power Woman is more resilient than you think." She says, and follows her one speedster while the others trail there's. When they converge, Marvel puts on the breaks, knowing what's going to happen next. She cringes and looks away, still not enjoying any bodily harm to a human, or human-type being. "Great. Dead-end." She says flatly. She looks to the other two and nods. "Thank you for your help, but I believe that this is Justice League business now, and I'm sure there will be federal agencies involved since they got away with quite a bit." She sighs. "We may need to speak with both of you at a later date."

Kyani makes sure he isn't shaken off easily, when it comes to proving he's good, he doesn't like to let down. But as they criss cross and then converge, he stops besides Miss Marvel, "This isn't good at all." he says preparing to battle them with vortexes if he has to but when they aim at the structures, he prepares to help anyone caught up in this if possible. He sighs a little once things are done, frowning then looking confused. "Well if you need me, here." he says as he gives Miss Marvel his cell, "I work at messenger delivery place. Big Tommys." he tells her.

Miss Marvel smirks and nods. "Thank you. The information makes it easier, but…" She begins to hover, planning on heading back to the Watchtower. "The Justice League can find you regardless." She smiles and waves, heading off, upwards, towards the atmosphere. Once free of any obstructions, she zooms, breaking the sound barrier as she breaks from atmosphere.

Lower Manhattan, Financial District and Seaport — New York
When most people think of Downtown Manhattan, this is what they're thinking of. Skyscrapers block the sun, turning the streets into the familiar glass- and steel-walled canyons. The Financial District serves as a magnet for daytime traders and office workers; the buildings of Battery Park City are a twenty-to-forty-story sea of orange brick. Battery Park itself, named after the artillery sited there during the Revolutionary War, provides an expanse of green right down to the shoreline from which the Statue of Liberty can be seen.

The Financial District and Lower Manhattan are dense with landmarks and significant buildings; among them are Federal Hall, the fort and national monument Castle Clinton, The New York Stock Exchange, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the ferries to the aforementioned Statue and Ellis Island.

To the southeast, one will find the South Street Seaport. The Seaport is one of the biggest tourist destinations in New York - in, at least, that it covers the most space. The area features some of the oldest architecture in Manhattan, much of it renovated and still in use; the preservation goes so far as to include a section of cobblestone street, lined with shops, bars, and restaurants. Most of the shops are admittedly high-end chain stores, hideously overpriced, or both. The top floor of Pier 17, a three-story mall, is crowded by cafes offering the best view of the East River, the museum ships, and the nearby Brooklyn Bridge.

This area also houses the Civic Center, the heart of New York's government. Tourists may be inclined to pass by City Hall, the Municipal Building, the Hall of Records, and most of the city's courthouses, but nonetheless, this is where the city is actually run.

  • Obvious Exits:
    • [00] - Subway South — New York
    • [01] - Abandoned Warehouse — Lower M
    • [02] - Coffee Bean — Lower Manhattan
    • [03] - Civic Center — Lower Manhatta
    • [04] - Club Notorious — Lower Manhat
    • [05] - Parking Level - Fisk Tower —
    • [06] - Fisk Tower — Lower Manhattan
    • [08] - Osborn Inc — Lower Manhattan
    • [09] - Nightwing Restorations — Lowe
    • [10] - Precinct 12 — Lower Manhattan
    • [11] - New York Stock Exchange — Low
    • [12] - Warehouse 313 — Lower Manhatt
    • [13] - Mary's Diner — Lower Manhatta
    • [14] - Warehouse 8 — Lower Manhattan
    • [15] - Battery Park — Lower Manhatta
    • [16] - Back Alley — Lower Manhattan
    • [NE] - Lower East Side — New York
    • [NW] - SoHo and Tribeca — New York
    • [S] - New York Harbor — New York
    • [SE] - Brooklyn Bridge — New York
    • [SW] - Battery Park — Lower Manhatta
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