| Dark Radiation |
| Summary: | The Shade and Neutron go on a robbing spree as some bet between them, heroes arrive to handle the situation |
| Date: | (2014-09-04) |
| Related: | NA |
| NPCs: | The Shade and Neutron |
| Scene Runner: | Jack Flag. |
| Social/Plot: | Plot |
| Players: |
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-==[ 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.
Its an average day in New York City, lots of people, lots of tourists, lots of cars. Everything about par for the course, with nice blue skies overhead, trails of long white clouds fading slowly out over the harbor and onto the Atlantic itself. Everything is good. Those listening to police radio's might realize something is a foot, in the span of several hours a number of banks have been hit. Its all fine and well, they're responding, no one has been hurt yet, its just a coincidence. Until the Chase Bank is hit in Lower Manhattan, which is curiously within a block of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Even as there is a response by police to make sure its not next, there are explosions in that part of the city.
A few whisps of black smoke can be seen rising from the Federal Reserve now and some battle seems to be in progress. Between smoke and shadows, its hard to make out the details there.
For Jack Flag, luck is on his side, he was doing something with a friend (Gary), and happened to have his costume, he has changed and is running to the scene by foot, now within a block or so. Not a speedster, he does run about as fast as a car on the interstate (the real sort, open interstate, not the interstate around NYC).
While she's technically attending college in Metropolis, Brooklyn Waters tends to feel much more comfortable in the most progessive city by HUMAN standards, not in the City of Tomorrow thanks to Braniac. So, she frequently visits NYC to see her friends and former classmates. She also finds great photo opportunities amongst the skyscrapers built by human hands. Which is what she was taking advantage of when the 'boom boom boom' of danger catches her attention.
Technicall, Brook hasn't really created a 'costume' yet. But, she's definitely not one to run away from trouble. Thankfully, one of her powers allows her to cloak herself in a sheet of water, which will hide her identity from most scrutiny. She turns on the water shield and then starts running towards the sounds of destruction, spreading her hands out in front of her to raise a wave of water that she can ride to reach the area quicker. Many shouts of 'excuse me,' 'sorry' and 'look out' are given as she does her best not to utterly soak all of the pedestrians in the area.
It's doubtful that Stargirl was doing anything terribly important with her time, knowing her she was probably up the coast laying on a beach when she got a call from her teammate Jack about a bank robbery complete with explosions. Foiling criminals being a lot more fun than working on a tan, she suited up and is now flying over, less than three minutes later.
The smoke is a pain for the flying heroine but she just covers her nose and mouth with a gloved hand and descends for a closer look.
As the smoke and mayhem seems to spread just a little, three heroes arrive on the sceen, each from their own direction perhaps. On the south side of the Federal Reserve is Liberty Street. It is one way traffic in two lanes, with side parking, heading southeasterly. Though no traffic goes this way. Presently amidst the smoke is one figure that looks like a walking robot, yellow in color with what could be a dome over his head. He is shooting blasts as what best could be described as black demons that seem to be coming out of the growing shadows along the street. These beings are in some sort of a battle between themselves.
The robot looking guy can be heard shouting at some of the shadows, while blasting shadow demons, "Shade!!! The Federal Reserve is mine, I arrived first. This is cheating!!" More blasts, one demons succumbs after a few blasts by the robot guy, becoming more smoke in the area.
Robots? Demons? Shade? Brooklyn comes surfing around the corner of Liberty street just in time to hear these final statements from the robotic bad guy. Letting the wave dissipate and set her gently on top of a parked car, Brook folds her arms across her chest and watches for a few seconds, just to try and figure out what is going on. When she's summarily ignored by the two people fighting, she cants her head to the side and frowns. She then raises a hand and waves.
"Um … bad guys?" she calls out. "Hero here. No offense, buuuuuut … I'm pretty sure the Federal Reserve belongs to, ya know, /the Feds./ And if you wanted to make a deposit or a withdrawal, I'm /pretty/ sure causing lots of explosions and general panic iiiiis /not/ the way to go about doing it."
Bad guys fighting bad guys. In some cases Stargirl would just sit back and let them duke it out until there was a winner and then deal with them. However, there is a lot of damage going on…and is that what I think it is! Considering the situation parlay is the furtherst thing from her mind. Her staff is brought up and pointed to the Robot villian, a sizzling beam of energy bursting out to one would hope, nail him in the chest with it.
There is a slight pause from the Robot guy when Brooklyn enters the area, calls and waves. About to return some monologue, he is unceremoniously hit by a sizzling beam in the chest. It pushes him back a little and gets his attention, causing minor damage to the metal on his chest. She can probably better see with this focus is that its a red man in a suit. "Look Shade, a real fight," he says, jumping to start flying and raising a hand to shoot a beem towards her, its equivilant to a small nuclear blast, force wise.
From the shadows somewhere, "Yes, Neutron, use that as your excuse, deal with these heroes and I'll take the Federal Reserve." A laugh even.
Seeing how this is going, Jack Flag runs at the current standing Shadow Demon (only one after Neutron blasted the other). Hitting it and causing it to topple to a knee, and turns to look at him. He swings again, but disappears and reappears in a shadow along the side of the building, falling towards the ground.
Imagine Brook's surprise when the giant robot is suddenly hit with a beam of energy. Brook swirls around to look up at Stargirl's approach, shock and awe quickly being replaced by a smile. Another good guy! Brooklyn is about to hop down from the roof of the car and enter the fracus when yet another person arrives. This guy goes to fight one of the shadow-demon-creature-thingies and lands a solid punch. Brooklyn is about to cheer him on, when the second punch suddenly teleports Jack into midair with a downward trajectory. "Oh, shoot!" Brooklyn cringes and cups her hands out in front of her like she was going to catch him in her palms.
As Brook does this, a fount of water suddenly rises from the ground below Jack. Of course, Brooklyn doesn't have any idea if Jack would have been in real danger or not. Or if he will even need the water to break his fall if he can fly. But, if he's truly falling and not flying, hopefully a water cushion will save him! Unfortunately, it would probably also soak him, but that's what water does. It's kind of an all-in or all-out thing.
Powerful energy blasts being shot…Stargirl's staff has an app for that. Now if adding new powers to it were that simple…A forcefield bubble forms around her though the impact against the field is enough to drive her back into another building. The glass of the building shatters and she disappears from view for a moment as she goes through it. It's only a few moments though and she is bursting out gaining speed as she rockets toward the guy in the robot suit. She can't match his fire power, but let's she if he can match her speed, strength and figting skills. All of which she puts to use as she makes an attempt to grapple him.
The water does help Jack, fall he can do, perhaps survive a fall even, but fly is not in his power set. He'll let the water take him down at Brooklyn's whim. That is, until the shadow from the building buldges and stretches, reaching a shadow tendril towards the water column. Jack starts going faster than Brooklyn may intend, and oddly, it starts raining over Brooklyn as if its being teleported out from the column she created and dropped. At the same time, the Shadow Demon stands up, and another starts to form from the shadows under the cars nearby.
Meanwhile, Stargirl takes the fight to Neutron. "Yes," he grins, as they two enter some sort of aerial battle, she is the better fighter, but he can match strength and is high end durable it seems. While not able to land much against her, his speed seems to help him deflect some blows. That is, fighting, she can push him back a little because of her superior fighting ability it seem. Though, she might feel heat rising off him, as if his body is pushing out nuclear radiation as a secondary attack against her while the two grapple.
Once Jack appears to be out of danger of falling to his doom, Brooklyn will let the water dissipate. However, the rainfall over her head crooks one of her eyebrows as she looks up at the sky quizzically. "… /what/ in the world?" she asks, shaking her head. But! There are more important things to focus on than random weather occuring outside of her native Nebraska! Like a new shadow demon appearing! And since she can't fly, either, Stargirl is mostly on her own at this point.
"Hey! No fair coming back into the game once you've been tagged out," Brook shouts at the newly forming shadow figure. Sweeping her arms out to power up her summons, she thrusts both her hands forward at the creature, firing a stream of water roughly twice the pressure of a firehose at the creature.
Stargirl swears that if a single hair falls off her head because of Neutron there will be hell to pay. As far has the fighting goes there are few that could outmatch her, Iron Fist or Black Panther perhaps, and a few others, but certainly not Neutron. And if that wasn't enough she can take a punch quite well…the radiation is another matter, but that takes time.
A glance upward is given as she fights and an idea springs to mind. A hand is balled into a fist and she slams it into the glass that protects his face.
Jack finally gets to the ground, swimming enough to not go through the shadow portal in the water that Brooklyn used to catch him. He picks up a car to throw it at the shadow demon that isn't being hit by water. That one, is pushed back a little where the water stream hits it, but it stops, stands its ground, then leans in a little, pushig back against the fire hose. Its not crazy strength level, but its just enough so far it seems. "No fair," calls Shade, but mockingly, another shadow construct comes out, forming into a bowl like shape, placed in front of Brooklyn's stream of water. Its pointed back at her again.
The fight continues with Stargirl and Neutron, him not able to return it, but standing up to her onslaught. She gets a good blow in on the glass, it starts to crack. "Oh yes, let me out," he says with a chuckle as well. Though, as water is sprayed back from the shadow demon thanks to the shadow bowl, some of it spatters on Stargirl and Neutron, seeping into the crack and causing the radiation man to sizzle just a little. "No," he says at that, and backs up, letting Stargirl press on against him if she chooses, but getting away from the water presently.
Having her water deflected back at her just makes Brooklyn laugh. Since the stream proved ineffective, she lets it drop, but the water that was returned at her hits her water-shield and is simply absorbed. "Really? Hitting the water girl with a water attack? You /must/ be pretty new to this whole bad-guy thing, huh?" she asks. And then, Jack is throwing cars around!? Brook is obviously outclassed here when it comes to strength. So, if she can't /beat/ the badguys into submission, she'll have to try and outwit them.
"Hey … um, Star-girl!" Brook calls out, taking a cue from the girls costume. She's /got/ to get one of those eventually, as keeping up her water shield makes her less effective doing other things and will wear her out sooner. She uses two jets of water to lift herself up and away from the shadow she'd been fighting and to get herself a /little/ closer to the aerial combat. "Knock that guy into this guy and lets hit 'em both together!" she suggest.
Being face-to-face with Neutron it is easy for Stargirl to see his reaction to water leaking into his suit. She grins "Afraid of a little H20 are you?" it wasn't her initial idea, but who knows if that would have worked. It's clear that the new one that pops into her head stands a much better chance. Her fist cocks back again and smashes into the glass where the crack is already formed. damage being done the glass shatters, exposing him or at least his head to the elements. Cue Brooklyn surfing up on a water column. There is acknowledgement of the water girls words in some form as Stargirl continues to grin or perhaps smirk at Neutron. She does some fighty move, her motions hard to catch and she throws Neutron will almost all her strength at the other bad guy "Spray 'em with all you got Aqua-girl." for lack of a better name.
The helmet shatters and he's exposed, that is Neutron. Suit and all, though as she tosses, he seems to leak out of that suit. As if it contained his form, and he is revealed as a glowing red man, pure radiation, outside of the suit. He can't throw punches, but he can still throw beams of nuclear blasts in this form. Though water spraying and more, he's sort of trying not to hit the water. Jack stays locked in a fight with a shadow demon, seemingly Shade isn't focusing so no more shadow portals for the moment. Instead Shade starts to move his bowl, creating another to try and block water from Neutron. "You owe me," says Shade to Neutron, "We finish these heroes then get back to our little bet." To see who can hit the most banks in a given time in NYC.
Brooklyn has to blink for several seconds as the badguy Stargirl throws suddenly turns into a glowing, red energy-person-thingy. "Man. I don't think school prepared me for /this/ at all," she mutters to herself. But! She has a job to do! As she gets ready to hit the bad guys with a blast of water, she notices the shadow-thingy forming a bowl again to block her spray. She frowns distinctly and furrows her brow. If a stream isn't going to work, "then how about a wave!" she shouts. She then drops both the jets of water that had lifted her and the water armor she was encased in and instead summons a large wave underneath her. The only tricky thing about /this/ is the fact that she has to ride directly over the two of them, which means she has to wait until the red guy is less than 30 feet from the ground. It also means she has to pass directly above them, which could prove dangerous. But, sometimes you just gotta improvise, right?!
The wave trick seems to work, it bypasses the bowl and The Shade can't react fast enough to stop the water from hitting Neutron. He almost hits the ground, and enters the wave. There is a lot of sizzling and steam and the water actually condences his form enough that its not just pure radiation so much as more like a toxic sludge of a crumpled man. As if completely injured and radiated, but not completely dead.
The Shade reacts instead by moving the bowl into a construct wall to helpfully let Brooklyn and wave smash into.
Stargirl isn't sure what's going to happen as the wave washes across the badguys, but one thing is certain…she's going to have to get Brooklyn's number. She can always use another surfing buddy! Especially one with those kinda skills. Oh joy! A plan that worked! Stargirl is ready. Another beam comes from the staff in her hands forming a dome like mesh cage over Neutron. He won't be going anywhere until she is ready for him to go someplace. Hopefully that will be with the proper authorities.
An interesting side affect of Stargirl's star beam construct power, as it flashes out to grab Neutron, the wall touches part of the flash and dissapates. Construct for Construct, shadow could probably match green spectrum lantern, it is the light from Stargirl's construct force that seems to negate it. "Nooo," says Neutron as he's trapped.
"What's this," says the Shade as one of his constructs is gone. The Shadow Demon stays on Jack, but other shadows receeed a little, as if he pulls more back to focus. Still, he remains hidden.
Now, see, that's not very nice. Putting a wall right in front of Brooklyn when she's trying to wave-ride like that? Just not considerate at all, since she has no way to stop her momentum. All she can really do is raise both her arms to cover her face and say 'OOF!' as she bounces off the wall and begins falling back towards the pavement. Woe is her.
One down several more bad guys to go, shady demon guys at that. Stargirl is no newbie heroine so she picks up quickly that the shadowy guys have a problem with the energy her constructs are formed of. Advantage Stargirl. Using that information she shoots one of these beams from the staff at Shade.
One construct housing Neutron, she is open to take care of the other problems. Judging where he might be, realizing some of the shade is more his construct to hide himself, she removes his hiding shadows and reveals Shade himself. As her beam shoots at him, he summons more to try and block but to no avail.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Demon on Jack is made quick work of when the Shade is occupied and unable to bolster the demon or keep it from being destroyed and sent back to the Darklands. Little damage done except for a few cars in the area. He sees Brooklyn hit the wall and slip into unconsciousness and runs in that direction to return the favor of catching while Stargirl deals with the Shade.
Both dealt with, only the smoldering pits created by Neutron's blasts and the damage to some of the buildings remains. Those police responding have set up at either end of the street, but have waited while the heroes and villians duked it out.