Log:Fight on Route 9

2010/18/03 	 Dark Horse Dissolve Fist Headlong Jennifer Lightray Lily Magnitude Mauler Rocket 1

'''Much land to the north of Colonial Bay is open countryside. The area around the busy 4-lane Route 9, which leads from Colonial Bay to Washington, is another matter however: service stations, businesses, and even whole towns have sprung up along its length; the highway itself is busy even at night with both conventional and hover-vehicles.'''

'''Close to Colonial Bay Route 9 passes between the Transport Nexus to the east and the Green Acres district to the west before one comes to the city proper. At the Hero Lane exit is a landmark of the city: the Protectors Memorial Coliseum, home of the Best of the Best tournaments.'''

It's just a normal day on busy Route 9. Here, near the Hero Lane exit, the traffic is, as often, particularly heavy, with the local traffic between Transport Nexus and city adding to the long-distance traffic. The rain does does make the driving any more pleasant, though now most people drive hover-vehicles it's not as bad as it was.

Jennifer grouses to herself about the inclement weather. Even so, this is the first day she's had recently to relax and she's out on her bike howling through wind and rain at speeds both illegal and outright foolhardy should anyone else with slower reactions, or less resilience in case something goes awry, attempt it.

Lily is standing under the Hero Lane overpass, watching the traffic and staying out of the rain. She takes notes on her PDA every now and then.

Joseph flies towards Route 9 from the direction of Hero Lane. His glowing form is somewhat blurred the rain as he moves above the treetops.

Fist is out practicing, or just having fun in the wet weather, generally out of the way of the more traffic-laden roads so that she can just cut loose and perform feats of acrobatic prowess that would seem impressive by video game standards. She is out in her shorts/t-shirt ensemble, not worried about the condition the articles will be in with the application of rain.

Dark Horse is on his motorcycle, but his speed is a bit more restrained than that of Jennifer's riding style. He has a helmet on, keeping the water off his head at least, "Bah...I wish I could fly right about now. At least I wouldn't have to deal with the traffic."

Abruptly there's a loud crash, a whine of hovervehicle brakes and the honking of horns.

Lily makes a note on her PDA, then tucks it up her left sleeve and steps into the rain to leap up on to the overpass and take a look.

Dark Horse blinks, the rain bouncing off the visor of his helmet. "Huh." He makes sure it's safe to change lanes...and quickly zips his bike over to the median. He then brings the bike to a stop, and flips up the visor of his helmet to get a better look at the problem.

Jennifer snarls to herself over the howling of the windrush as she swerves across to the emergency lane and applies brakes, "Damn. On my day off too. I wish I could have gotten a refill for the nanoheal kit when it ran out. Guess that's the downside of depending on alien tech." Bringing her bike quickly down to a more managable speed she looks to see what she can make out of the cause and consequences of the assumed sideswipe.

Lightray looks down and then with a fli of his wings heads down twards something below him. He seems to be heading down towards the Hero Lane exit.

The sound-making kaboom reaches Fist's ears, and the blue-haired teen abruptly changes her activity, rushing toward the sound as best she can judge its position, limited for the moment by being unable to discern what happened.

Jennifer says, "Huh?!"

Dark Horse mutters. "Great...gang warfare on a crowded highway. Morons." He gets off his bike, leaving it well out of the line of fire, and starts to run down the median toward the altercation. He places a quick call to the police with his radio while running, to alert them to the firefight that is starting to erupt.

Dark Horse's bike is on the northbound side of the median.

Lily leaps up to the overpass to help out.

Another van swerves across to the northbound side, energy fire blasting a path through the median barrier.

Jennifer wheels her bike around and across the lanes in a burst of acceleration, kicking in her antigrav belt for a moment to jump the median divider as she closes in on the Chinese meta... hurriedly trying to remember that rather long ago discussion with the Chinese Minster on the abilities and personalities of that group.

Jennifer mutters as she gets a brief clear view of the meta, "Great. It has to be one of the dumb ones. And he's English is as bad as my Chinese."

Lightray focusses his attention on the van where the energy blast came originated. He goes into a dive in order to close the distance.

The first van tries to get properly back on the road...

Dark Horse sprints to try to catch up to the van as it starts to turn around...thankfully it slows down a bit as the driver attempts to make the large vehicle go the way he wants. Dark Horse then attempts to grab onto the back of the van, and get his feet up on the bumper, so he won't get dragged along.

Dark Horse manages to grab onto the handle of the door on the back of the van. Specifically, the left door(The one that has to be opened second), so that if the people inside open the back door, he won't be swinging into traffic. He manages to get his feet up off the pavement, but not without dragging one of his boots for a few feet.

Fist hops up onto the overpass, assessing the situation in an instant, or as best she can with the chaos, remaining unseen by those present. Her first instinct is to get in the way of something, but that is stemmed as she instead positions herself to intercept the meta.

Dark Horse tries the back door of the van, to see if he can open the right door. Hopefully it's not locked. That, and hoping he's faster than those actually inside the van. He's not exactly invulnerable.

Jennifer slides her bike onto its side o O(Oh hell! The paintwork is going to be ruined!) and leaps off it. A quick glance around to see where the vands are heading, and who else is around. The she prepares to intercept Headlong, moving between him and the van he was attacking before dismounting.

The van door to which DH is holding is thrown open abruptly, by someone with more than human strength....

Jennifer calls out, "Hey! &lt;Best attempt at Headlong's Chinese name%gt;. You were told to keep this in Chinatown. I'm going smack your butt and then smack Tim Lee around for letting you off the leash."

Mauler lands in the road behind the van, slamming the door behind him - but not before Dark Horse swings in through the open door. To find himself face three men with energy weapons, and their cargo.

The door pops open roughly, causing Dark Horse to pivot to the left...and then swing back toward the right, tumbling to his feet inside the van as the brute moves past him and outside. He says in Mandarin, "&lt;I suggest you surrender now.&gt;"

To a loud rocketlike noise another man in black flies to the seen from the direction of the coliseum, carrying yet another man.

Lightray raises a hand as sunlight solidifies around his body. He then lowers the hand and brings a beam of enervating sunlight down upon the man in black.

Jennifer flicks a glance towards the aerial sound o O(That's Rocket, I think. Another of Lee's crowd. What in Hades is going on?)

The beam of unlight misses the man in black by a wide margin. On the positive side, it creates a nice rainbow effect for a moment or two.

The man in black charges the van again - but, not being able to get a good run up to it just tries to grab it.

Since Jennifer had the same plan that Fist did, the silent one rushes the van that Dark Horse did not go into, leaping to land on the roof without making a sound, or a sight.

Headlong heaves the van above his head, with some effort!

Jennifer lets Headlong grab the van and lift it high over his head. Then, having waited for the right time, she sends the energy lash of her whip snaking out low to the ground and curls it around Headlong's ankles trying to send him tumbling, and if the van ends up falling on him over on its side that's all to the good.

Jennifer looks at the unmoved Headlong. "Damn. You need to go on a diet!"

Suddenly on the eastern side of the highway, a woman appears, growing taller and taller - and make a grab for the second van.

Jennifer thinks. o O (That has to be Magnitude. This has to be important for Tim Lee to unleash so many of his meta force at one time. He knows this will have consequences.)

Magnitude lifts the van clean off the highway, and brings it to her other hand, as if intending to shake it...

Fist tries to get a look inside the van by leaning over and peeking into one of the front viewing points..

In the back of the van with Dark Horse, two men lose their footing as the can is picked up, and the third loses his nerve and fails to fire. IN the other van, one man has the presence of mind(?) to close the door before they get tipped out.

Fist decides that neither side is liable to be the 'good guys' in this fight. She moves down to ground level, swerving around and sending a somewhat powerful punch into Headlong. Oddly, she does not even try to be sneaky about this, apparently prefering the direct approach.

Rushing past, Fist connects with Headlong's midsection, ending up a bit of distance form him, ready for another pass.

Headlong grunts at the blow, though it's hard to say whether more in pain or surprise.

Dark Horse plants a foot on the cargo, steadying his balance. He lashes out with a palm strike at two of the men in the back with him...but at their guns.

Dark Horse's strikes knock the guns clear of their hands, sending the weapons skittering down toward the back door, and they clatter against it.

Rocket lands close by the first van, setting down the man he's carrying, and fires an obvious warning shot at Fist - lots of little rockets missing to all sides - and say a few words in Mandarin.

Jennifer shouts out as loud as she can in exasperation, "Didn't Lee send out anyone who speaks ENGLISH!?"

Fist can only imagine what is being said, and assumes that it is only meant to dissuade her from participating in this fight.

"I speak English," says the man whom Rocket just put down.

Jennifer nods, "Great. Before we continue beating each other around, what is GOING on here?"

For the moment, Fist does not make her move yet.

"Pride is bring weapons into the city. We can't let him have them."

Jennifer says, "Okay. That we can agree on. Next time, don't come charging out. Contact us. Now, are you all willing to stop Pride without doing any unneeded damage to life, limb, and the surroundings? I include Pride's goons. Stopping them is fine. Damaging them is not."

Jennifer waits after making her little speech to gauge reactions.

Jennifer tells the English speaker, "Work with us on this. Think about it. But don't take too long or we'll lose control. Meanwhile I'm seeing Headlong, &lt;insert attempt at Chinese name&gt;, isn't going to listen. My action against him is not to be taken as acting against any accord we can muster."

Jennifer tries to grab the van so it cannot be thrown, especially not at Fist.

The English-speaker promptly talks to Rocket in Mandarin. Rocket looks pensive - well, as much as one can tell under the mask.

Rocket barks an order at Headlong, who keeps holding the van but no longer looks about to throw it.

Rocket asks, using the other man as interpreter, "What do you suggest?"

Lightray flies upwards to look at Magnitude and just shakes his head. He points at the van and then lowers his hand towards the ground as he calls out to her. "Please put the van down carefully, ma'am. Although there is better than even chance you do not understand me."

Meanwhile, Magnitude opens the passenger-side door of the can she's holding and shakes the two men in there to the ground - a long fall, but she takes care it's not deadly.

Magnitude says to Lightray, in not-very-good English. "I do not want to hurt you. Go away."

Jennifer suggests, "You work with us. We stop Pride's people from getting any weapons or other such gear. They go to jail. You get a pass for what's happened so far. In part because Geoforce has earned you a a credit for what she did to save a alternate Earth and in part because, whatever your motives, up to now you haven't acted much differently to how we would have done if we knew about Pride's plan."

Dark Horse keeps quiet in the van, watching Pride's men closely. Assuming they don't attack him.

Rocket's eyes flicker a moment, and he nods. "I accept," he says, throuhg his translator.

Jennifer nods, "Thanks."

"And what's to become of the weapons?"

Jennifer says, "They'll be handed over to the city police, who will hand them over to the FBI, who will lock them up. If the weapons are super-tech then top men will research them. Which is government talk for sticking them in a box in a secure facility and forgetting about them."

Mauler suddenly leaps at Magnitude's leg, likely trying to trip her, but the giant isn't budged.

Jennifer shrugs "If the weapons were to be damaged before being handed over I'm not going to be bothered. So if you want to make ure they cannot be used against your side in Chinatown... be my guest."

He nods. "Better they are destroyed."

Jennifer looks around at the heroes to see if they are agreeable with what she suggested.

Fist seems happy that no one is liable to get killed out of this.

"I will tell my colleague," says Rocket, before flying off to Magnitude's ear.

There's little resistance once the vans are opened up - the guards know how outmatched they are.

As for Mauler - he just seemed to vanish after his failed attack, somehow.

Jennifer frowns, "Rocket," speaking through the translator, "you said you have information Pride was bringing weapons into the city?"

He nods and frowns. "Yes. Weapons, not armour."

With the overthreat being done, Fist begins checking to see if anyone is in need of medical attention.

A few of Pride's men got a bit shaken up - especially those dropped from the van. Otherwise, nothing worse than bruises.

Lightray flies down to land near Jennifer. He murmurs, "Now I know what a hummingbird feels like." He nods politely to Rocket and his translator.

Jennifer says, "We need to look again. In case there's another shipment of gear. The actual weapons. If you hear about it, contact us. Listen, I know Tim Lee would like to get his hands on such weapoins. But it's not in his, or your, interest to do so. If this kind of trouble starts there's going to be pressure to bring in heroes from all over the States, round you up and ship you back to China, or to let the new Chinese government bring in metas to round you up and take you back. If Tim Lee gets his hands on such weapons, me might start thinking he doesn't need a bunch of independantly minded metas."

Jennifer looks at Rocket, Either way, you're getting the short end of the deal, and there's not going to be much left of Chinatown, or maybe the city."

Jennifer nods to Lightray, "Kind of impressive, isn't she."

He nods again. "Yes. Neither one side nor the other having such weapons is ideal."

"And that is true of this armour too." He says something to the translator, who proceeds to spray some sort of liquid from his body, in which the armour begins to dissolve.

Lightray smiles slightly. "Aye, she is at that. Reminds me of a movie I saw once." He watches as the translator beings to dissolve the armor. "Alchemy or some other sort of power I wonder?"

Jennifer nods, "So far most of you seem to be pretty reasonable guys. I accept it was Tim Lee who arranged for you to come here, and you figure you owe him some payback. But you're better than he is. You have a chance of a new decent life in this country. Take that chance."

"Simple chemistry," says the translator to Lightray. Rocket makes no reply to Jennifer to be translated.