Log:Wrath and Despair, Scene 6

Wrath and Despair 2017/10/06 Lady Winters Mindbender Wolf Lt. Harper Natasha Elia Annie Mechanica Zero Night Marshal|Detective Carpenter Laura Johnson 6

Here stand the grand buildings of the city constructed during the rapid 19th-Century expansion, on low land reclaimed from long-lost Harrisburg Creek. Main Street is broader here that to the south, though still paved with cobbles, and surrounded on all sides by grandiose edifices (though at any time at least one seems to be under renovation): the heart of this district. Around this are narrower residential streets with a flavor much like that of Old Town, all with faux-gaslamp street lighting.

The weather is starting to turn cold. The last few days have seen the temperatures drop into the 50s (F), causing local residents to start to bundle up in jackets and carrying pumpkin-flavored coffees. The City Center is its normal bustling self on a Friday, with some people leaving work early to get home before their kids play in the local sporting events in the evening.

Natasha is gliding semi-randomly across the sky. She's discovered a new game, using her own fiery breath to create updrafts to glide on: she's trying to see how far she can get without beating her wings.

Lady Winters is bundled up against the weather, a long leather coat and baseball cap. Her hands are tucked into the pockets of the coat. Unlike most though there's no visible vapour from breath. She's on a search, looking for a missing Harrisberg teenager who's friends revealed her intention to dip in the city center area.

Cold shmold. Annie tends to ignore alot of things, and the weather's one of them. She still sports her summer wear despite Fall falling: white bikini top, white shorts, and strappy sandals. She walks through the district and all the bundled up folks, whom she almost feels sorry for.

Wolf and Lt_Harper are on-station at their usual post outside the courthouse, sniffing for bombs and contraband in the possession or proximity of those entering the building. A standard precaution, really -- Nothing out of the ordinary for them -- at least, not yet! Also, by way of what is likely needless clarification: -Wolf- is doing the sniffing for contraband. And Lt. Harper is holding the leash and asking the questions -- because that's how a K9 team works! (i.e. The dog does all the work, and the human handles the PR.) Today, no contraband. Yay! Instead, Wolf smells pumpkin flavored coffees, dry and falling leaves, and the cool crisp winds of Autumn.

'Norah' Miles is just getting off work, leaving the City Center Police Precinct after a long early shift. Her plan is to get home and take a nap before putting on a costume and pulling another all-nighter on her 'nightjob', which just so happens to be as a street-level vigilante. She'll begrudgeningly fight, but she prefers to spend her time helping people- so sometimes its as simple as providing directions to a lost pizza boy, helping the elderly cross the road (though some of the old men get a little 'handsy') or educating children that the cat isn't 'stuck' in the tree and that they need to be patient and it will come down on its own when its good and ready.

As a detective walks towards the police station she nods, catching a whiff of a pumpkin spiced latte or as she calls them (because she's an addict) 'PSLs'. She has to stop herself from turning on her heel and heading towards the nearest coffee joint.

She pauses a moment and mentally calculates which coffee shop is nearest on her way home. She's now convinced a coffeenap is the way to go.

Mechanica is stepping out of the city jail after meeting with one of her troublesome associates who got himself picked up by the police. She's disguised as an attractive young latina lawyer with a pantsuit, minus any briefcase. Beneath the hologram, her suit and coat keep her nice and toasty against the cold.

Carpenter is coming out of the police station, walking alongside a woman, who at least Natasha recognizes. It's the woman who fell from the skyscraper in an apparent suicide attempt. She had called herself Laura. As the two reach the sidewalk, there's a young man in a leather jacket who steps in front of them, "'Scuse me, detective. Have a moment to talk?"

City Hall

From the west side of Main Street a concrete pathway winds through well trimmed bushes and a well kept lawn to a pair of broad wooden double doors set in a grand neoclassical building. Through these doors the city government takes care of the affairs of the city, be they concerning water reclamation or street repairs.

Natasha, recognising the woman and the detective, wonders whether to abandon her game and go and greet them....

The Police Department isn't why Annie's in the neighborhood, though she doesn't go out of her way to avoid it, either. The only immediatey familiar face she spies as she walks in front of it is the hairy one with the big nose. To clarify, that's Wolf, not Lieutenant Harper. She smiles and waggles fingers. "Hi, pup!"

Lady Winters calls out, "Mentalist in the City Hall. Top floor. Using Mind control!" to the detective just exiting the Police Station. Her voice is loud enough to be overheard by most in the area. Then she tries to identity the target of the attempt.

Natasha suddenly goes into a nose dive toward the crowd, open her mouth and "exhales" what appears to be chewing gum at a pedestrian.

Carpenter stops to look at the man in front of him in the biker jacket, "Umm...sure. What can I help you with?" The man smiles in return, but before he can say anything, a third man...this one in a business suit, draws a plasma pistol from his jacket and aims it at Laura.

The gunman is held fast, including his weapon. Though since it was drawn, he might be able to use it to get out, potentially.

Wolf *points* his nose in fond greetings towards Annie as she waves and calls out her own salutations. Wolf *wag wag wags* happily to see his friend. . . But then, an instant later, Lady Winters' cry of alarm rings out. Wolf and Lt. Harper exchange quick glances, and, a split-second after that: *!click!*. . . Wolf is off the lead and heading up through City Hall. He's in a hurry, his tail streaming out behind him as he runs flat-out.

Annie blinks at the sudden yelled warning and looks up at the police station upper floor. But that's not where the real problem is! It's alot closer, with gun-drawing, but by the time she looks back thattaways, the gunman's already Doublemint Gummed up.

The lawyer stares at the sudden dragon swooping. Mechanica is staring as well, hidden behind her holographic projectors as she looks around at the situation, then looks up towards city hall. She mutters under her breath in spanish about hating telepaths.

Although Nicky is pretty sure the mentalist was trying control the gunman she cannot be sure he, or she, wasn't trying to prevent the attack. So rather than take any offensive action she concentrates on remembering the mentalist's features and the 'touch' of his mind so she'll be able to identity him or her if she sees the mentalist at a later time.

Norah sighs and reaches into her bag as she sprints for an alleyway where she bounces out of her flats and quickly puts on her boots and slaps on her domino-mask.

From there she's shoots a swingline up, knowing that Carpenter can't possibly keep this in hand for much longer with or without Natasha's help if there's a teep capable of mind control in play. It makes things more dangerous- exponentially so when there are this many people around. Everyone becomes the enemy.

She sprints over the rooftop and straight towards where Carpenter, Laura and the gunmen are. She is of course not the fastest hero, but she's doing everything she can.

Carpenter moves to put his body between the gunman and Laura, shielding her. The other man who was trying to speak to the detective bolts, running for cover.

The gunman hasn't pulled the trigger, but likely will shortly, oblivious to the fact that he's held in gum.

Lady Winters brings to the front of her mind the exact locatioin where she saw the mentalist and the clearest view she managed of the mentalist's face and appearence. Which Wolf can read easily from her thoughts.

Zero is still making her way from the building across the open area. She is moving as fast as she can, but while her particular method of movement is efficient & effective, it is not rapid by metahuman standards.

Lady Winters knows she isn't the quickest meta by far. Others will get to the second floor location well before she could. So instead she heads at a flat out run towards the rear of the City Hall. If the mentalist has to exit by foot and picks a rear exit just maybe she can beat her to there.

Natasha keeps diving on a collision course the gum-encased gunman, trying to knock him over, so that if he fires the gun it will be into the ground.

The gunman is knocked over, his gun arm (and most of his body) still encased.

Annie knows all about mental (just ask Matt), and the gummed gunman looks like he's already about to be stuck to someone's shoe. So, up, up, and away she goes! White-feathered wings sprout from her shoulders and a hop/wingbeat send her up the front of the building towards the third floor windows. That's the last she heard about.

Mechanica drops her hologram, her true self already invisible to sight and sound, as well as radio devices. She fires off a swing line towards City Hall's roof and reels it in fast, sending her flying up towards the second floor. She cuts the line as she reaches just the right height so that her arc takes her towards the window. But rather than smashing through, her quantum shift drive spools up and she simply phase through the window, landing in a three-point stance within. She looks around for signs of the mentalist Lady Winter warned of.

The woman blanches at the quick response of various obvious heroes outside, and goes to bolt from the window. She glances quickly in the direction of Mechanica, apparently sensing something. But she doesn't stop. She just flees the room, heading into the main carpeted hallway on the second floor of the building.

Mechanica stiffens as the mentalist looks her way. She couldn't have seen her. Could she? This is why she can't trust mentalists! Except for Zero. As the woman runs, Mechanica stands up and holds a hand out towards her. Her cloaking matrix drops and she turns solid, and a small canister on her belt pops open. Thousands of tiny robots fly out, unfolding and expanding as they swirl around the woman, preparing to interlock around her to form a ball.

The microbots interlock together as they flatten out, forming an opaque black globe around the fleeing woman. The surface is metallic in texture and lightly rippled from the shape of the bots. Mechanica lifts her finger to her mouth, and blows on it like it's a pistol.

The woman stops short as the barrier comes up. But there's no sound from inside, indicating what she might be doing.

The gunman's weapon goes off...though it tries to burn through the gum before discharging into the pavement.

It does get through the gum and leaves a scorch mark on the ground.

Carpenter draws his pistol and tries to usher Laura away to cover.

Zero finally makes it into the scene and immediately charges the gunman. Her plan is to bring the weapon under control to prevent the telepath from just having someone else pick it up.

She flips and lands low and swings her foot out as she attempts to sweep the legs out from under the gunman.

That strike is enough to knock the man out. He was just a regular civilian, after all. Even with the pulled strike, he cries out...and might have a broken bone.

Natasha shakes her head disapprovingly. She was just going to bite through his gun.

Mechanica strolls over to the barrier and politely knocks on it. "Hey, mujer. Comfy? Cozy? Want to talk about what you were doing up here and why you ran?" she asks casually in that crooning, playful way of hers. She activates her radar (sense) to check for any radio signals trying to escape her microbots. She waits a moment and listens.

Lady Winters arrives at the rear of the city hall and starts to make her way inside and up to the second floor.

Natasha goes over and picks up the gun with her tail. Just in case anyone else was thinking of using it.

The young heroine Zero recognizes the sound of a broken bone when she hears one. She sucks her teeth as she drops down and secures the gun. With the gunman passed otu, her priorites are clear. Control the weapon, then attend to the injured.

That said, she has a remorseful look on her face as she stands and slips the weapon into the belt of her linegun holster.

Annie only saw the one woman at the window, and she ran. -Obviously- a sign of guilt. though Annie may also see her get bubbled (to the gunman's gummed), she gives chase anyhow. The shortest distance between the two points is a straight line. right through the window.

There's still no response from inside the globe. The loudest noise in the area is Annie crashing through the window.

Carpenter looks over to Zero, "Everything under control?"

Wolf lowers his shaggy angular head, digs in with all four paws, and powers his way forward, nose held low and ears smooshed back flat against the sides of his head by the speed of his passage as he run flat-out, each step an elongated stride that covered the intervening ground in a hurry. Arriving at the edge of the City Hall nearest the window pointed out by Nicky, Wolf notices that he's gotten there just a second or two late. He looks about for the others, spotting Natasha and Annie fairly easily. . . . but: oops, there goes Annie through the window!

"Seems so, Detective- although our gunman definitely needs medical attention." Zero says remorsefully as Natasha swoops the gun up a half-second before she can.

She tries to indicate that Carpenter is the best person to hold the weapon in question with a series of flapping waves and pointing fingers.

Natasha takes the hint and delivers the gun to Carpenter. She's been careful not to get any fingerprints on it. Tailprints might be another matter.

Carpenter checks on Laura. She says, "I'm fine, detective." He nods and calls in the incident, so that paramedics might show up."

A couple of policemen show up in the room where the woman is being held. Both have their weapons drawn.

Mechanica flinches and jumps back as the window smashes in, just as she was hoping to get answers. "Callate...I think the woman's trapped."

Carpenter is careful to not touch the gun with his bare hands, using instead a cloth from his pocket.

Lady Winters finally arrives where the women is englobed, "Hello. What's the situation here?" she asks nobody in specific.

Annie glides in through the glittery shards of shattered glass, through the room and down a bit of hall to Mechanica and her giant dark ball of woman. She stops and hovers. "Trapped? Well, let 'er out! Then we can totes find out what kind of shick she was trying to pull."

Mechanica holds her hands in the air as the police show up, keeping the globe between herself and them. "I'm one of the good guys. I think I caught the person who was trying to flee..."

Natasha watches (and smells) the crowd. Figuring if one human can be controlled, there's no reason another might not be.

Wolf heads back over to where Lt. Harper is (hopefully / probably) still waiting, retracing his steps at a (much more) leisurely pace, seeing that Carpenter now seemingly has the situation quite well in hand. Since all of the shouting has stopped, that should also presumably indicate that the humans are no longer urgently worried about things going terribly awry in the immediate near-term -- and Wolf did need to leave Nathan in rather a bit of an urgent hurry, which will probably take some explaining once he gets there. . . being as he is still wearing his "working" K9 harness but without the guide-lead or leash attached!