(2014-09-27) Party Crashers
Party Crashers
Summary: Log Summary
Date: 2014-09-27
Related: The Menace of Mongo
NPCs: Captain George Stacy, NYPD
Scene Runner: Power Woman
Social/Plot: Plot
Players:
power-woman..fairchild..batman..robin..spidergirl..iron-man..

New York City is host to dozens of swanky hotels with glittering ball rooms suited to high society functions of one form or another. This particular ball room is playing host, tonight, to quite the gliterati gathering of shining personages, all brought together in mutual charitable cause. At least, that's what the organizers of tonight's function are hoping. Truth is, many here are only here because it is the place to be, the place to be seen. But their money spends just as well as the others, and it's all going to the cause of a community outreach foundation, supporting everything from halfway houses and job training classes to youth athletics and afterschool programs.

Amongst those attending, Karen Starr, the 'face' of StarrWare, Inc., a hot property and up and coming tech and applied sciences company, is here to show her support. Not only is she donating her own money, but she has convinced her board of directors to donate some of their tech to the foundation to help facilitate their efforts. And she has come tonight with a guest, a rare thing for her. Rumors are flying fast and furious about the gorgeous redhead since they made their entrance. But the Metropolis University engineering student and R&D specialist (she is NOT CEO, her father is) has simply been too busy smiling to answer any questions looking for specifics. Yet.

Caitlin Fairchild makes her way in with Karen, the flashing lights causing the young woman to cling to the tech superstar. So not used to the attention, the 6 foot tall, voluptuously formed woman has no real place to hide. She bites her lower lip and looks to Karen in apology, feeling that this is her fault. The woman is clad in a pale green gown, a strapless chiffon bodice leads to a flowing skirt with a slit up the side to show of her leg. Her feet are clad in matching heels with ribbons that criss-cross up to above her ankle. She hopes to get Karen to move faster into the room proper so as to avoid the attention of the cameras, at least for now.

Gwen Stacy was there with her father, much to her dismay. This college girl doesn't enjoy high-class gatherings like this, even if it's for a good cause. Her father, however, is a respected member of the community and is basically required to attend, and, in her own father's words, he 'refuses to bear the suffering alone', so he brought in his daughter with him. So, walking in with her father, holding one of her father's arms around her own, while his other arm supports himself on a cane.

The girl politely smiles and nods gently to everyone looking at her, while whispering between her teeth, "I swear, dad, I'll get you back for this…" To which her father's only reply is whispering "You're welcome to try, my daughter." back to his daughter, who fires back with a tight pinch on her father's arm. To his credit, her father just barely winces. While the father is wearing a black smoking, the daughter is wearing a teal green strapless dress that flows down her body, hugging just enough the body, with a slit on the skirt going almost up to her hip.

Of course Wayne Industries is present with Bruce and his ward Dick as they enter. The older of the two is dressed in a black tux for the affair with his hair slicked back a bit tonight. "Is this Save the Whales?" he asks putting on the front of a the dim witted one. "O community outreach. I thought it was save mammals with blowholes." he laughs a bit taking an offered glass of champagne which he has no intention of drinking but will at least hold onto it. Looking at a brochure type thig he reads over what this charity will actually do to help.

The ward in question trails along at his mentors side. Somewhat slimmer, the eighteen year old student is dressed in a tuxedo as well, custom tailored of course, that shows off his athletic figure rather well. Richard Grayson's hair is fairly long, and tied back to keep it out of his face. He rolls his eyes briefly at the words from Bruce. "No, it's not Save the Whales." He glances around the party, noting the othes that have already arrived. Some stand out more than others. The ones that probably are the most striking are the pair of incredibly beautiful women who seem to be there together. His eyes linger on them for a time, a smile finding his lips. Eventually he turns back towards Bruce. "I think it's a community support deal. You were the one that agreed to this, I'd think you'd know."

Tony also takes a glass as he enters, as he has every intention tonight of drinking. So do the three past month's worth of Maxim's Mid-day Hotties that have been featured in their pages the past three issues. Tony, of course, is dressed to the nines. Custom Tux, matching shades, 24kt and Ruby Iron Man cufflinks (because he just rolls like that), and of course the perfectly coiffed, windtunnel tested hairstyle. "Okay ladies," he says, emptying the flute in record time, "Remember, this is a charity function and we're here to reach out, of course, I maybe reaching out for one or all of you at different points this evening, so stay in formation. And..go!" he says, snagging another glass of something alcoholic as he enters like a force of nature.

"Relax, Caitlin. Everything will be fine, honest." Karen Starr offers her lovely redheaded companion with a winning smile and a hand laid gently over the other's arm at the elbow, as she helps guide their way through the reception line and into the more open space of the event, though they'll be a while mingling before they ever get close to their table. Karen herself is almost as tall as her stupendously beautiful date, arrayed in a delightful deep blue gown specifically cut to help downplay and minimize her assets a bit. No hip-high skirt slits for her. Simple matching heels and a clutch are paired with gleaming crystal clear StarrGaze glasses on her face. The blonde doesn't seem to hesitate in dealing with the press, but she is repressive enough not to give them a quote, or her date's name. It's none of their business, really. And they should have to work for their supper, same as everyone else. "You look amazing tonight." she murmurs, smiling as they draw abreast of a few others in the room. "Did you want something to drink?" Karen asks Caitlin, as one of the waitstaff comes close by.

Caitlin Fairchild blushes and nods. She follows her date through the line and reaches their stop. "I only try to mirror your loveliness, dear… oft times I fail, yet I still try." She smiles and grins for those around them. "Gimme a goon squad any day… Unfortunately I can't beat paparazzi into submission." At the offer of a drink, she nods emphatically. "Yes.. Preferably something with high alcohol content and low carbonation… I swear, if I burp I'll rip this dress."

Gwen Stacy looks around, taking in the people and their dates (or lack thereof) as she follows next to her father, until he stops to talk to someone Gwen doesn't know, and doesn't really care to, the two talking about police department stuff, or so she figures. She isn't paying attention to them, really. Actually, her eyes are scanning the crowd. Her eyes focus, for a moment, at the pair of ladies, but soon move around. She has this feeling at the back of her head. It's the same as she gets when danger is about ot strike, but it's subdued, unfocused, as if it can't make up its mind from which direction danger is coming from, or even if it's coming at all, and Gwen doesn't like that feeling, only adding to her discomfort. She does reach for a glass of.. whatever it is they're serving. Anything to calm her irritated nerves.

The beautiful women do not go without notice by him. Nor does the parade of them flocking around Tony Stark as he makes his entrance. Bruce nods his head to Dick, "I know." he begins moving along the permimeter of the room either leaving him there or allowing him to follow.

Not being of age, Richard doesn't take any drinks. He does snag a crab puff off of a tray and pop it into his mouth. "Hmm. Can't tell if this'll be like most fund raisers or not. At least there are some interesting attendees." His eyes settle on Gwen Stacy, watching the blonde Police Chiefs daughter. If he manages to catch the girls eye, he gives her a wink and a smile before turning back to other guests. Tony Stark arriving is kind of hard to miss, especially with his entourage, and he gives the infamous billionaire a little salute. Then he startss to wander, mingling with the rest of the crowd. He seperates from Bruce for now, and eventually manuvers to where Karen and Caitlin are. He gives them his most winning grin and a brief bow, "Good evening, Miss Starr, and Miss Starr's lovely date. Hope the two of you have fun this evening. I know it's hard at these sorts of things."

"Oooh. Someone's feeling her inner poet tonight." Karen opines to Caitlin, smiling with pleasure. "And no, beating up the papparazzi would not be a good idea." The tall blonde gathers up two glasses from a nearby tray and hands one to her date, and then turns to offer a brief smile to the handsome dark-haired gentleman who just approached. A flicker of light appears within the lens of her StarrGaze glasses, and she then smiles and nods. "Mister Grayson, isn't it? Richard?" Karen questions. "I think we're doing alright, so far. It's for a good cause, and having good company helps a lot with the 'fun' part. I think there may be dancing a bit later, as well." And if not, Karen might decide after they leave to head for somewhere where there /will/ be dancing. That'd be nice, she's thinking.

Superhearing picks up a crunch of broken stone, and bent steal, some moderate distance away. No sounds of conflict, however. No alerts being sounded. No sirens, no shouts or screams, no shots fired.

Tony returns Richard's salute with one of his own, "Grayson!" he calls out, "How's every little thing?" he asks, but is pulled into a photo op before he can get an answer. This is a thing that happens with him, and he's all to happy oblige. Some might call it 'feeding his ego'. Semantics. He makes his way a little farther into the procedings. He sees Bruce, and gives him a nod, notices Karen and Caitlin and offers a wave to StarWars (or is it StarrWare? He can never keep those two straight, blame it on Reganomics.)

He moves in the most effecient manner he can having brought three dates with him, because you know, someone might not have one and he's a sharing is caring kidna guy. He glad hands his way around, shaking babies and kissing hands as requested.

Caitlin Fairchild nods and takes the offered drink. "It's not too difficult to wax poetic with such a muse on my arm." She blushes a bit. "You do know that this is the first…." Her thought is interrupted as Richard arrives. SHe looks to Karen to do the recognizing and the introductions…… only she doesn't She huffs slightly and offers her hand awkwardly. "I'm Caitlin. Fairchild. A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Grayson." She says to the young man. She raises a brow at the mention of dancing. "Well, dinner, high society and dancing. You show me off at all the nicest shindigs." She giggles slightly, a hip-bump to Karen. She looks to Richard. "Did you come with someone?"

Gwen Stacy's eyes, at one point, fall on Richard Grayson, and she sees the wink, and she smiles back politely, giving him a soft nod, before she turns back to her father, who still seems to be engrossed in their talk. She hates interrupting her father, but, "Dad?" she asks, gently laying her hand on his arm to get his attention, "I hate to interrupt, but we should find a place for us to sit soon. Remember your knee, you can't remain standing for too long." she says, smiling.

"Oh, yes. You are right, my daughter." He replies, before turning to the one he was talking to. "I apologize, but I must continue my way. I enjoyed your talk, but I'm sure there are others who would like to speak with you as well." then, turning to his daughter, "Alright, dear. Let us find a spot to rest my knee." he says, and the two now go toward the tables.

Nodding, the teenage acrobat replies to Karen, "That's right, Miss Star. Richard Grayson. Might I call you Karen?" He offers a hand to the blonde woman, and then to her redheaded companion. "Company does make a world of difference, it's true. Dancing? Well, maybe I'll manage to steal you away from your, if I can say, stunning date for a dance at some point. Or maybe I'll be very daring and try to steal you both." He smiles at the redhead after taking her hand, shaking briefly. "A pleasure, Miss Fairchild. And pleasure, call me Richard." He glances towards Tony, chuckling softly, then returns his attetion to the pair in front of him. "Well, I came with my…well. He's not my Father, exactly. But he did take me in when I was younger, so close enough. Bruce Wayne. If you mean in a romantic sense…no. I'm afraid I'm quite alone." A long sigh.

Among the crowd Bruce rather tries to lose himself. Though the cameras find him and try to usher him in the direction of Stark. The nod is returned to Tony while taking a brief moment to speak with an older group of ladies that approach him. No he isn't above speaking to the elderly nor the fact one or two young things are flocking nearby as well. The drink in his hand is settled on a passing waiter's tray to free his hands to take hold of one of elder ladies hand as he listens to her story.

Yeah, it is the first. Karen knows exactly what Caitlin was going to say, and nods without saying a word. They an discuss it later. "Of course you can call me Karen. It is my name, after all." Her playful smile sparkles at that, accepting his hand. "Well, if the dancing starts, you'll have to take your chances and ask, Richard. We'll see what happens." Karen's not making any promises, but she's not going to cut the guy off and say no way, either. Nothing wrong with a dance, after all. And it would suit to mingle the social interactions as well. Karen pauses a moment, and makes direct eye contact with Richard Grayson for a moment, as she says quite directly, "I know how lucky it is to be taken in, when you have no one. And what it can feel like to build a family, with those who are no blood relation to you. I'm glad you had that when you needed it, Richard." It's a curiously very direct comment, revealing an intensity she wasn't showing anyone but Caitlin until that moment.

Metal rends and rips, stone is crushed, and heavy footsteps proceed deliberately, even forcefully.

Emitter paged Gwen Stacy with 'FYI, the 'danger' jangling would be getting sharper, but stil directionless.'

Emitter paged (Batman, Richard Grayson) with 'Depending on what precautions you two took tonight, you could potentially have something that would have been watching the roof of the hotel; if so, something just shorted out cameras in the area, and longer distance views show the roof door being ripped clear off the hinges.'

George Stacy, while walking with his daughter toward the tables, finds Karen Starr, her date and a young man, and turns toward his daughter, "Ah, we will sit in a moment, my daughter. First I just noticed someone I must speak to, without delay." and to which his daughter blinks, "Who?" Gwen asks, "Why, Karen Starr, of course. Her company, StarrWare provides much of the NYPD equipment. It would be just rude to not at least speak to her and thank her for all her generosity." And then Gwen just rolls her eyes, knowing at least half of the reason is simply because her father refuses to sit down whenever he can, despite his bad knee. "Alright, dad… just make it quick, ok?" She grumbles.

Now shifting directions toward Karen, Gwen's father smiles, "Ah, hello, Ms Starr. It is such a pleasure to meet one of New York Police Department's greatest benefactors!" He says, bowing gently, with his daughter bowing as well, right next to him. "In the name of the blue force of New York, I would like to extend our thanks to you and your company." Gwen, for now, doesn't say anything, but she does seem a big uncomfortable, shifting a bit, as the 'feeling in the back of her head' gets stronger.

Emitter paged Tony Stark with 'FYI, assuming that JARVIS tends to watch for any anomalies electronically nearby to wherever you are, you would be alerted by text that sensors on the roof of the hotel have gone out, including two cameras. Security is investigating. Currently, they are not declaring an emergency, only a reason to look for more info.'

Caitlin Fairchild nods. "I'd be honored to dance at the appropriate time." She says, offering the young man a smile and a nod. She looks up at Karen and grimaces slightly at her words. She silently reaches over and wraps a hand around Karen's wrist gently, fingertips resting on the inside of the wrist. She smiles warmly as the police captain arrives. She removes her hand and allows Karen time to speak with the man. She sips her drink and smiles, looking between Richard and Gwen, a shared shrug to the pair in a 'People love to talk. What are you gonna do?' kind of way.

Richard Grayson blinks, that sort of sincerity rather rare in these situations. He gives her another smile, this one a little softer. "Thank you, Karen. I appreciate it, really." Then Captain Stacey arrives, and he gives the Captain a polite nod. Not being the one he's interested in, he shifts his focus to Caitlin and Gwen, studying both. He offers Gwen a hand. "Miss Stacy, is it? A pleasure. My name is Richard Grayson. Feel free to call me Richard. I'm glad you could make it tonight." There's a sound like a cell phone beeping and he frowns. "Exscuse me." He steps away from the group, turning and pulling out a smartphone-like device. Scanning the screen, his brows raise up, and he glances towards Bruce, who probably received a similar message. He turns back to the ones he was speaking to and smiles. "I need to step out for a moment. I'll return as soon as I can. Save that dance, please." Then he's heading towards the door. He doesn't know what's happening, exactly, but time for a change of suits…

Tony is socializiing and drinking amongst the girls he brought with him and amongst the various party goers as well. Things seem to be going fine until his StarkPhone chirps and he takes it out to read it, the party-boy face disappears for a moment as Tony's face grows serious for a moment. He taps rapidly on his phone in a response as well as sending off another message, and then returns to normal party opertions. However, the eyes of the billionaire CEO narrow, as he looks around for something.

Moving away from the group he was speaking with, Bruce takes out his phone checking it before noticing Dick is on the move. Not like he can step into a closet or phone booth to change. As the room seems budy he finds that moment where he can slip out.

Tony Stark pages: I told JARVIS to continue monitoring and alert me the second things seem really off, and sent a text to Happy outside the ballroom to be ready with the football.

As the camera zips from face to face of each hero as they receive news, the camera focus on Caitlin to see… bewilderment and frustration. She briefly touches Karen's elbow and indicates with her eyes that she needs to rush to the powder room ."Please excuse me." She says to Richard and Gwen as she heads off, her dress swishing around her in her haste.

Karen turns as she is addressed, another flicker of light within the lenses of her glasses. "Captain Stacy, yes?" she offers, and extends her hand. "Pleased to meet you, Sir. StarrWare is happy to do all we can to help those who make it their business to protect and save lives. And so am I. It's an honor." She glances past George, and smiles at the young woman at his back. "Pleased to meet you, too. Believe me, I've been dragged to things like this with my father, too."

Karen pauses, glancing towards Caitlin, and then nods, lips pursed. She's not pleased, but that's more because she's worried. And then Richard departs as well. Karen doesn't say anything, but she's looking more tense. It's subtle, but it's there to be seen. "Captain, I think your daughter would appreciate it if we made our way to some seats. Why don't we do that, Sir?"

George Stacy smiles and bows his head gently toward Karen, "Yes, your contributions have helped us save not only many civilians' lives, but also protect the lives of our own officers. It's such an invaluable contribution, and—" then Karen addresses his daughter, "Ah, yes, this is my daughter, Gwen. Gwen, this is Karen Starr, one of the major contributors to the NYPD." He says, and Gwen smiles, bowing gently, "Pleasure to meet you, Ms Starr." she says, then giggles as Karen mentions having been dragged to such event by her parents. "And yes, dad, you should sit down, before your knee decides to complain again." she says.

Distracted by the feeling in her head, Gwen almost misses Richard Grayson's approach and introduction, "Hm- Oh, hello, Mr Grayson." she says, smiling to him, "Yes, I'm Gwen Stacy, a pleasure to meet you." she says, reaching for his hand and nodding gently. She was about to say something, when the beep of Richard's phone catches his attention, and then the guy excuses himself. On one hand, she's glad he didn't press a conversation. What she's sensing is really bugging and distracting her. On the other hand, she's quite pissed that the guy chose to play Bejeweled on his phone over to speak with her. Ugh, boys. Still, this presents her an opportunity: if what she is feeling gets any worse, she'll have to excuse herself. But, for now, she follows her father as they head toward a table.

Emitter paged (Richard Grayson, Batman) with 'OK. Not sure if you guys would have the means in place to intercept hotel security comm traffick, but they just lost all contact with the team of four they sent up to check out the roof. No sounds of distress; signals just gone. They're scrambling their emergence response team, with a hardline unit. FYI.'

Emitter paged Tony Stark with 'FYI: JARVIS will pass along that he's escalating the concern. They just lost all signal from the four security peeps they sent up to check the roof; they're scrambling their emergency response team, with a hardline unit. JARVIS' telescopic visuals can confirm some sign of disturbance on the rooftop, and what appears to be severe damage to the door. He would very much prefer it if Tony 'took appropriate precautions'. :)'

Elsewhere in the building, Richard is in a dark room stripping his clothes off, and quickly changing into hsi uniform. Why did he happen to have this stuff ready beforehand? Because he was trained by Batman, and obsessive preperation is key. Soon enough, Robin emerges and begins to move towards a window, intent on scaling the building upwards towards the roof. He's doing his best to be stealthy, which means he's pretty much a ghost. Despite the colors of his costume.

Better to be prepared than not of course. Batman emerges from where he changed now moving to the stairwell heading up this way though stopping he does listen a moment for any sounds.

Tony Stark sets down his drink, and abruptly walks out of the gala. His body man, Happy Hogan is waiting for him just outside. He has uncuffed the red and silver metallic looking briefcase from his wrist and is waiting for Tony to step outside. As he does, he informs him to start working the inside and getting people away from harmful areas such as glass windows and the like. If there's a way to usher them to a safe area away from the ballroom all together, to begin working with the security inside to do that.

Meanwhile, Tony steps on the briefcase with a patent leather foot, and it comes alive. Two recepticles form, and he plunges his hands into them, rising up again, he extends his arms and a frame work of silver begins forming over his chest, and once to his shoulders, reaching out to his arms and meeting at the joints. He steps as red metal seals around his feet and calves forming boots. In a mere six seconds, Tony has gone from dressed to the nines to wearing a solid, portable version of his armor. He steps outside as the suit comes online and boots up, and then fires the repulsors to take him to the roof.

No one likes party crashers. Not even Tony Stark.

Karen can hear much of what is going on, but she wasn't concerned. Not until she realized that somehow, Tony Stark had bailed on the party - including alcohol and sexy women - to suit up as Iron Man. That must mean this is a lot more serious than she thought. But not everyone can just run out of the party. Karen is as much a focus of attention here tonight as anyone else, and she really can't afford to just disappear and have Power Woman show up on scene, especially not unless there's an actual need. So, despite that Caitlin is apparently getting sick without her there to help or support her, the blonde stays on scene, heading to the tables with Captain George Stacey and his lovely daughter.

And then the pressure in Gwen Stacy's head turns into a warbling pulse of directed danger. Something is WRONG, and it's up. Up, and to the left from her current position.

Those making their way rapidly towards the roof will spot that wrongness in short order. In the stairwell, Batman will spot two men, dressed in navy blazers and khaki pants, their lapels marked with hotel crests and visibly carrying hardware … falling down through the opening between the stairs. They are preceded only momentarily by a gurgling scream and a whining hiss, and one of them has a very large hole in his chest. The other is visibly smoking. Two bullet strikes zhing off something hard and metallic, and then another whining hiss. A voice up above the caped crusader is shouting, "We have lethal intrusion. Crash, crash!" Then another whining hiss of sound, and his voice goes silent.

Outside the building, Iron Man soars up faster than Robin, the Boy Wonder can climb, but Robin started first. As they pass one another, flashes of light are visible from above, as if lightning was in the … clear, completely stormless sky. And then a smoking human body comes over the edge of the roof and plummets down past them.

The HUD in Iron Man's armor will 'flicker' a bit as he nears the roof, the systems in the briefcase armor not nearly as well shielded as his more heavy-duty units. Batman and Robin will both note that various comm and other electronics gear is fritzing out. Apparently, there's a lot of heavy electromagnetic interference up here. And some heavy, crunching footsteps.

Gwen Stacy almost flinches at the sudden increase of her Danger Sense, making her almost curse. Almost. Ok, she can loiter no longer, so, smiling, she turns to her dad, "Dad? I have to go to the ladies' room, ok? I'll be back in a moment." she says, standing up and giving her father a soft kiss on the cheek, before turning toward Karen, "And a pleasure ot meet you, ms Starr. I hope we can still talk when I return." she says, nodding, before making her way to the bahtrooms. Her father, meanwhile, smiles and waves at her before turning back to Karen, "Ah, I love my daughter, she takes so much after me… but sometimes I wish she took more from her mother, than me." He chuckles softly, "But I cannot complain. She's been a good daughter, especially after I was shot."

Meanwhile, once she's out of sight, the blonde just breaks out into a run. She jumps and flips in mid-air, her hands removing her heels, so she doesn't have to worry about breaking them, before she heads into the ladies' room. A quick change, and carefully folding her clothes (she wouldn't want her father to know why her dress was suddenly all crumpled up, right?) she puts on her Spider Girl costume, and puts her dress and shoes into a makeshift web backpack she creates with her webbing, "Sorry, dad… but this spider needs to do some investigating of her own…" she whispers to herself, before making her way out through the window and crawling up the outside walls.

Caitlin Fairchild blinks as she feels a draft, spotting the back of someone slipping out the window. She whispers. "Karen, I think there's a situation." She slips in the Justice League earpiece that connects her directly to Karen, overriding the frequency in her StarrWare glasses. "Folks are outside. I'm hitting the stairway." She pulls off her heels and places them on the countertop in the bathroom as she ducks out, heading to the nearby stairwell instead of heading back to the party. "Remind me next time to where my costume *under* my dress.."

Bodies go down past him and he frowns at this. Batman sneaks up along the steps listening as he goes upward. Hearing voices and then it stops causes him to freeze. Before he can make a move he has to be sure of what he is about to leap up into.

Upon reaching the roof, Robin slides into the shadows, listening to the sounds of movement Then he begins to ghost towards it, angling around to try and approach who or whatever it is from behind, intending to study them before making any moves. At least briefly. They're clearly armed and unafraid of killing after all.

Tony makes it to the rooftop as he begins to recieve some HUD interference from elecromagnetic devices. "JARVIS, find me whatever is harshing my signal so I can take it out." — he's smart enough to not actually touch down on the rooftop quite yet. Being on higher ground is a tactical advantage. Especially when there's no more ground for anyone else to get onto. He quickly begins targetting threats and firing blasts from his palm repulsors as he moves around the building several feet above the rooftops.

As the various heroes reach the upper levels, what they discover is readily apparent: two hulking figures, each in golden armor with obvious technological enhancement. Each stands about eight feet tall, bulky, about four feet wide. Their right 'gauntlets' end instead with large-bore energy canons. Their left gauntlets include a vicious serrated A-shaped blade extending past the hand by a foot or so. Their armors also seem to have energy conduit patterns that pass through the armor, visible as glows through the armor openings at joints and the like. There's not a lot of additional detail visible on the people inside the armor.

Sneaking up, Batman will see these two armored figures coming across the landing of the stairs at the leve just below the roof access, and starting to crunch their way down the stairs into the building, their armored gazes visibly sweeping the area. They do not immediately seem to twig to his presence, though how much of that is not actually noticing his presence in the shadows, and how much is not caring, is unknown.

Robin's approach similarly seems to go unnoticed as he catches sight of them from behind, looking down from the rooftop door to the first landing, where they crunch down the stairs with calm, deliberate pacing, without a care or hurry in the world.

Iron Man will be informed by JARVIS that the interference to the armor's systems seems to also be responsible for a lot of system failures in and around the hotel, and currently JARVIS is triangulating that location to be in the stairwell, about thirty feet away from the hovering suit of armor containing Tony Stark.

Spider-Girl will make better pace up the outside of the hotel than Robin did, but will reach it with no sight of the troubling suits of armor. However, her sense of danger points the way pretty clearly, and there's always Iron Man's gaze to lead the way if necessary.

Caitlin Fairchild can sprint up the stairwell freely, as she is in a different stairwell than Batman. However, she will also hear likely a dozen booted feet hard-charging up the stairs behind and below her.

In the ballroom, Happy Hogan comes in and immediately finds the closest hotel security personnel, explaining that they need to start corralling people and moving them away from the windows, towards safety. Word starts to spread … and then the comms go down. The lights flicker, and then sparks fly from the fixtures as the lights go out. The emergency lighting tries to come up … and then shorts out as well, spectacularly. It's very, very dark in the ballroom right now.

Karen Starr growls as her glasses go down, and her StarkPhone loses signal. Her League communicator is doing a better job, but she has no idea how long that will last, and she can't exactly speak back, given she has an audience in front of her in the person of Captain Stacy. "Be careful." is all she can manage to whisper. With the lights out, however, she watches everyone starting to panic, and listens to the shouts of the security personnel trying to guide them to safety. As Captain Stacy starts towards one of them demanding to know what is going on - probably intending to go find his daughter, if this is serious - Karen starts working on slipping away in the darkness. She can hear the screams, and the dying, and knows help is needed.

Iron Man's repulsor blasts strike his targets, and they shift positions, turning to look back up the stairs towards him. They don't seem very damaged, and then those blasters are lifting towards him … and blue-white torrents of energy howl outwards and upwards, aimed almost as accurately at him as he did at them.

Emitter paged Iron Man with 'Your suit's sensors would tell you that tech doesn't match anything in your current databases; and there are elements of their power signatures that would seem to violate the laws of physics. Also, what little read you can get on whomever is inside has anomalies which would say they're either metahuman, or not human at all.'

Emitter paged Batman with 'How your systems are shielded I leave up to you; if you have your League comm on you, it would still be functioning, but not the crystal clear signal quality it usually has. You would also be aware that there's at least two other League communicators active in the vicinity, though currently only Tony's is reporting its user ID.'

Spidergirl quickly makes her way up, and frowns once she nears topside. While she can't see anything immediately, she looks up, seeing Iron man, her danger sense indicates where she should go, matching the general direction the armored hero is looking at. Keeping herself still on the wall, she quickly crawls toward the direction her senses tell her to go, and when she notices the hulking armors, her eyes widen a bit, just as Iron Man blasts them with his repulsor rays. "Right…" she mutters to herself, "This is not going to be fun…" she mutters as she frowns. "Sorry, dad. This will take longer than expected…"

Caitlin Fairchild bounds up the stairs in her bare feet, holding her skirt up as she goes. She makes her way to the roof to see… pretty much nothing. She runs over to the other end of the building where the commotion is and walks through the door and notices the two as they head down, destroying the stairs behind them as they go. She grumbles to herself as the two hulking beasts seem to be a couple levels down from her, and the only way down is by…. She takes a breath and screams, "Geronimo!" as she jumps from the landing, hoping to use her own body's density plus the rate of gravity as a weapon, trying to land on the brutes.

Slipping a cord from his belt he twirls it aiming to wrap up the thug in the back by the ankles and pull him down off the landing to dangle over the railing. If this was successful he will tie the cord off to leave him there suspended in the air. Batman now leaps up to the landing punching the other in the face if he is seen before he escapes or simply slips out onto the roof after him.

Studying the two figures in armor, Robin slips a pair of birdarangs from his utility belt, readying the crimson thowing weapons. Noting the energy patterns, he suddenly flings the two of them, aiming for the joints in the armoed figures armor, trying to hit soemthing that looks like it might possibly be a power supply for the blasters. "Batman, I don't recognize these guys. Ever run into them before?" The blasts from Iron Man are noted, and he glances up at the armored figure. "At least we have an armoed energy-blasting guy on our side. Of course, ours is a little smaller…."

Iron Man gets on the JL comm frequency, and says calmly, "So yeah, we've got some out of town visitors, if you know what I mean and what I mean is that they aren't from Jersey. More like Ork. Mork from Ork." he dodges the energy blasts, as he zeroes in on where the interference is coming from. Seeing no other way to make this happen just from shooting at it, he decides that he needs to make a hole. Literally. Blasting the wall just before he goes through it to take out whatever is futzing up comms. "JARVIS, I might need something a bit stouter. Get the Mark 3 prepped in case in need to dock and swap."

Caitlin Fairchild, pretty dress and all, lands on one of the armored figures, her mass and momentum enough to drive the figure back one step, two, a serious dent in that chest plate, and he starts to fall down. His partner turns, left fist grabbing his back and pushing him upright with a whirring sound as augmented strength proves sufficient.

This turns the front armored figure's back on the rest of the stairway for the moment, giving Batman the opening to sweep in, wrap that cable around the rear figure's ankles, and pull it taut. But the caped crusader will find that these hulking armored brutes are far too strong and massive for an attack like that to work without far more strength than even he can bring to bear.

Robin's throws put two very sharp birdarangs into the open elbow gap in the armor of the rear figure, and sparks fly. The birdarangs are quickly slagged, but the glow in the open cavernous tube of the right hand dims and flickers. The return fire from that one up the stairway towards Iron Man ends.

"Roger, Iron Man. Power Woman here. The visual from your armor is a bit corrupted, but that seems to match a report we had of another attack recently. Only one target in that attack. Be warned, that target exhibited significant metahuman strength and resistance to damage." comes a response over the Justice League frequency, routed to everyone who has one of those comms on site - including Iron Man, Batman, and Caitlin Fairchild. "We didn't have enough to examine from the prior incident, but supposition is that they may in fact be from our big friend in the sky. Be careful, and get us whatever readings you can."

Iron Man blasts through a wall and slams into the midst of the close-quarters combat going on in the stairwell, as one of the massive armored figures is lifting a bladed gauntlet and slamming it down on a gorgeous redhead in a green dress. The other lifts a still-glowing right gauntlet and fires point-blank on the Iron Man with another of those blue-white torrents of howling energy, as the repulsors strike at much closer range, pushing the target back into the wall, embedding a bit, dents forming. But it's not stopping, and the energy levels seem to be climbing, according to those haywire sensor readings.

Spidergirl decides to act. She jumps in through the window, swinging past the Armored guy who was attacking Iron Man and lands on the wall, "Alright, fellas, you all look a bit tense, there. Why don't you calm down, put down that pea shooter and we talk?" She says while shooting her web on the barrel end of the armor's hand cannon, in the hopes of clogging it and keeping it from firing again, and on the visor of the helmet "I heard Sing-Sing offers great counseling."

Caitlin Fairchild cheers as she seems to knock one down, but as the other helps it to lift back up again.. "Uh oh…" She says. "K, we're dealing with heavy hitters here. I put a dent in it, but that's all I*ooomph*" The transmission is interrupted as the brute that Caitlin knocked over rights itself and shoves a backhand into Caitlin, knocking her through the outer wall of the stairwell. The redhead falls the multiple stories to the ground, dress torn to shreds and is knocked out in a small crater on the street.

"No." Batman tells Robin as he raises a leg to try to kick the rear brute over the railing finding more strength is needed. He can definitely hear Tony's attacks but his comm seems to be making other voices ssound like static only giving a clear word here or there.

Hmm, that worked pretty well. Robin darts towards the one whose blaster is now out of commission, producing a capsule and flicking it towards its helmet. It explodes on impact, layering a thick goo over the front and hopefully cutting off sight. Hopefullly. They don't really seem made for dodging, more durability. He's ready to dodge and return blows anyway, Darting around and under the figure, hands moving rapdily as he ties to pluck a series of small devices from his utility belt and cram them into other joints of the beings armor, primarily the legs. They're shaped charges. If a pair of birdarangs disabled the cannon…once he's placed as many as he feels is safe, he flips back and away from it. The armor will probably mostly contain the blast if it works, but… "Everybody stand clear of it!" Then he thumbs a small detonator, setting off the charges and hopefully at least slowing the damn thing down, if it doesn't cripple it entirely.

Tony takes a close range shot, and the damage report comes in over the HUD, with JARVIS chiming in helpfully, "You've sustained moderate damage with the initial strike. The suit will be rendered useless within five minutes." a beat pause, then: "Sir, I've taken the liberty of modifying the Mark 3 with higher end ordinance and loadout, with the increased armor profile we'd discussed. I'm piloting it in automatically and it will be in range within two minutes."

"Thank you JARVIS, set it down across the street on the roof. In the meantime, route power around the damaged circuits and re-reoute power to offense systems. I want to try the Hand to Hand system we worked out with SHIELD."

"Right Away sir..and done."

Coming back from being dented into the wall himself, there's a countdown timer that appears in the upper right hand corner of the HUD to show when the replacement, more robust suit will arrive. In the meantime, Tony digs into some serious close quarters stuff - a martial arts system that was co-developed by him and SHIELD following the incident in Los Angeles. It incorporates the ability to use the repulsors to add expoentially more power to his blows than even his strength-augmented suit will allow.

Spider-Girl's webbing covers the barrel of one of those hand-cannons, and more covers the helmet's visor. From the blast that comes out of that cannon into Iron Man's suit, that wouldn't seem to have been effective. But the webbing over the visor doesn't seem to be going away, and targeting accuracy seems to be suffering accordingly.

Caitlin Fairchild falls quite a ways, clearing space around the two armored suits for close-quarters engagement, and there seems to be a lot of that in a hurry. Batman practically parkours around to a position to try kicking with all of his strength to push one of the armors up and over the railing of the stairs. It's enough, given limited visibility problems, to make one stumble a step into the railing, but not over. Maybe through, with more pushing.

That opening is enough for Robin to dash in, gooing the face plate of the other armor, and then cramming those charges into the gaps of the armor's joints around the knees. With the goo on the visor, the swim that could well have taken the Boy Wonder's head off misses, in a lethal whistle. The explosion that follows is largely contained within the armor, without external shrapnel. The explosion damages the energy conduits visible there, and the armored suit staggers, yielding finally to Batman's efforts as it loses balance and falls through the railing, following Caitlin Fairchild on a plumet down the entire height of the stairway shaft to rather explosively land down below, a column of blue-white energy roaring back up the stairway and blasting a hole in the roof. The entire city block also shuts down, the power grid literally overloading and exploding.

Iron Man has the advantage in accuracy, especially since his targeting isn't mucked up with goey webbing. He also has the advantage in speed and agility. His blows are powerful and the other armor rocks with those repulsor-augmented shots. Dents are done. But that armor is not yielding easily, and just one blow from that punch-dagger is enough to do staggeringly lethal potential damage. Thankfully, it doesn't land where it can get to Tony inside the armor, but there are pieces missing.

Spidergirl is a bit miffed when she sees her webbing didn't work on the cannon, but at least it seems to still be blocking his vision, and then suddenly everything goes dark. Great. At least the remaining armored guy's armor glows, and so Spidergirl jumps toward it, hoping to land on its back, "Excuse me, Iron Man, mind if I take your partner for a dance?" she asks, before attempting to dig her hands into the armor's back to pull metal plates and wires, "Ok, let's see, do you need this? And this? How about this? Oh, this looks important. What about this?"

He tries to catch Caitlind with a hand before she can go too far but then there is the blast that sends him like a projectile with it up onto the roof. Batman comes down on his back roughly. "Robin.." he says into the com hoping he is alright somewhere as well as the team.

The tendency of these things to explode is going to make examineing them for weaknesses hard. Robin hears the voice in his com. "Here Bats. I'm fine. I think that girl might be hurt though." He raises his voice and calls out, "Go for the joints! They've vulnerable! I'm going to check on the hurt girl!" Since he's probably the least physically powerful person there. He runs for the hole the girl fell through, leaping though while flinging a few more birdarangs at whatever joins on the remaining 'bot present themselves, and begins falling. Partly down he fires his grapple, slowing his fall to a controlld speed, and eventually stopping just above street level. He releases and retracts said grapple, then moves over to the redhead, crouching and starting to check her injuries.

A form streaks across the skyline, and it lands across the street from the action on the adjacent rooftop in Tony's signature three-point landing. It rises, then extends it's arms and parts of the armor retract into itself. Tony blasts his way back out through the window, and fires everything he's got to propel himself backwards. He turns the same way a swimmer does when they hit the wall of a lap, and flips mid-air. He makes his way to the rooftop and ejects himself out of it. The armor lands powerless on the opposite side, and TOny sits there for a moment in his tux. He whips off the sports coat, and walks briskly towards the waiting armor. "They want a fight? Now they got one." he says as he arrives. He steps back into the suit and it closes around him and boots up. The beaten suit will use emergency power to get home. It might even throw off the attackers and make them think he's retreating. No such thing.

JARVIS is uploaded into the suit within seconds and the suit comes to life with glowing reactor in the chest and optics.

"Alright JARVIS, let's get back into a fight. Let's see how they deal with a true Iron man."

He launches himself back into the fight, re-entering the fray he was just in a few minutes ago only now he's got the Mark Three-Point-Five, completely with beefier armor and deadlier weapons.

"Okay, guys, you've overstayed you're welccome. The bouncer's about to show you out. You can take the elevator or the stairs."

"Tear It Down" by Def Leppard can be heard faintly on comms, but not enough to distract. Though within the helm, it's rock concert loud.

Spider-Girl tries grabbing for important bits of the armor's inner workings by driving her hands through the openings in the joints. There does not seem to be room enough for much depth of digging through the shoulder joints, and the armor does not budge despite her best efforts. The power conduits seem to be too tightly reinforced to come loose, though this position does put her behind it, unreachable by its attempts to counterattack, at least until or unless it manages to try smooshing its back into the wall with Gwen still on it … which it does not attempt. It's too busy trying to fight Iron Man, unsuccessfully.

Robin's birdarangs punch through a few joints, with more sparks. The suit doesn't power down, but more damage can't do any harm to their changes. Down below, Robin will discover the far-fallen redhead's form, barely dressed at all, that lovely green dress quite a bit the worse for wear, covered only by the Comics Code Authority's demands. But there are no signs of significant injury. Some bruising, scuffs and such, but nothing more. No broken bones. No serious blood loss. She's just unconscious from the shock of the fall

Iron Man's departure leaves the armor free to try lumbering off at least, continuing its original progress down into the building, carrying Spider-Girl along with it. It's viewport is still gooped up with webbing, but it makes a crunching, lurching attempt to continue its progress.

Down through the hole in the roof of the hotel, right past Batman's form lying on the roof, goes the crimson-caped form of Power Woman. She has monitored what she could of the combat so far, and has a good idea just how resistant to damage and powerful this thing is. She takes a page from those aiming for the gabs in joints, lazing with her heat vision, trying to blast through and do as much damage as she can to slow this thing down or stop it.

Showers of blue-white sparks ripple away from shoulder, elbow and knee joints as Power Woman's heat vision bites home to do some damage. Then, as the armor staggers, Power Woman lowers her perspective and swings with most of her might into the outside of a knee joint. She cries out in pain as the knee joint shatters explosively, sparks showering everywhere … and then a cycling high-pitched whine starting to build from within the suit.

Spidergirl finds her attempts useless, "Wow. Is this thing made of adamantium!?" but then she hears the Boy Wonder's idea to go for the joints, "Right!!" she says, and she first goes for the shoulder joint, trying to break whatever seems fragile there, before trying to keep the thing immobile by using a generous amount of web to encase the thing's legs and glue it to the ground!

Batman leaps up to his feet and follows Power Woman down the hole back into the building. "Thats the way. Light them up!" he tells her and leaps over the rail down to the ground floor to land beside Robin. "We should get her out of here. I think Stark can show them the door from here. Has anyone checked the ballroom? Are the civillians still in there or did they leave?"

"She's okay. Good." Robin smiles, then slips off his cape and drapes it over Caitling to better preserve the redheads modesty in case anybody else shows up. Then he peers up. "Hmm. Those things were here for a reason…what were they after?" Okay. Hotel. Group of rich, influential people…one of them maybe? Seemed most likely. But who would be worth sending giant robots after? Then Batman lands beside him. "I think she's okay. She's just knocked out. Not hurt otherwise. And well out of the line of fire. No, not yet. One of them might be the target though. There ae some important people in thee. Tony Stark… Karen Starr…" His brow raises. "Bruce Wayne. They should be after any of them."

"Slouching off towards Nazareth waiting to be born?" he asks before landing right and left punches to the alien's kidnets hopeing they aren't armor as well. When and if it turns around Iron Man will hesdbutt him with his helmet.

The last armored figure detonates explosively, with another torrent of blue-white energy released, blasting away those too close to it, slagging and destroying itself utterly, leaving virtually nothing for later examination. The explosion also does tremendous damage to the upper floors of the hotel, leaving them largely a smoking ruin. Those still attempting to fight the creature are hurled away quite forcefully, with potential burn-scarring as well. Thankfully, however, the damage goes no farther than this. The civilians are saved. They will need to be evacuated, since the hotel's power grid is completely ruined. But they will survive this night.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License