Log:Powerless in Chinatown, Scene 9

Powerless in Chinatown 2021/03/26 	 Chen Dark Horse Firefly Kid Tengu Lennox Samuel Another Man's Army Silkworm II

9

Nearly a week has passed since One Man Army, Microwave and Silkworm (in her cocoon) were attacked and deprived of their powers. Precision has declared that she can do no more for Silkworm, and the coccon has been taken to the hospital to see if Western medicine can help at all. Things in Chinatown remain tense, and Lee's metas still travel round in groups, but no more has been seen of the attacks, yet. It is a cold day, even for Februrary (yes, this is time-shifted).

After a big fight against 'Another Man's Army' at the house a goon's teleporter led the heroes to, the heroes questioned AMA until he gave them the address of a warehouse in the Industral Park, near Route 9, where, he claimed, he was given his powers. Chen scouted this warehouse while the other heroes hung back to various degress. Alas, it proved to be an ambush: at least three dozen instances of AMA, to together with a man with Silkworm's powers, a woman with Microwave's powers and otther three agents awaited inside!

Battle was joined, and by this point both Silkworm II and Microwave II have been taken out, as has the agent with the tranq gun. The tranq gun and the ego-sapping gun are in hero hands. But that still leaves dozens of instances of Another Man's Army and the second agent, all armed with blasters, to fight. And moreover, Silkworm II has named Chen as an especial target, as having powers worth taking!

It's afternoon, and at a warehouse in the Industral Park, in what would be in sight of Route 9 but for a line of trees, all hell has broken loose! The whole front of the warehouse has been blown off, and much of the ceiling has collapsed. Dozens of dark-grey armoured, blaster-wiellding men are facing off against a handful of heroes! 

Dark Horse sees an available blaster. He remembers that trying to fight the armored duplicator was a bit...slow, so another weapon might be the ticket. After all, how hard can it be to use? Point and shoot. No biggie. He runs over to where the downed agent is, and he grabs teh blaster.

Chen calls out, "Kid, wait one."

Kid Tengu continues trying to cut himself free so he can get back to blasting AMAs.

He tries to focus on cutting free of the blades when finally he gives up on it. It takes too much focus to try to make edges sharp enough to get out.

So he goes the opposite way- his musculature suddenly doubling before he tries to burst free- he only halts since Chen tells him to pause. He hope she has a good plan.

Chen takes a couple of steps as her right hand transforms into a clawed dragon's paw and rips at the silk binding Kid Tengu.

Even Natasha might be impressed. Nah. She'd expect no less. The dragon claw rips through the binding silk like a monoedge through melting butter.

"That seems like a strange plan, Ch--" KT says but suddenly the merit is made clear as she frees him in one magnificent slice.

He smiles gratefully as he says, "Thanks!" Despite the moment, he keeps his eyes on teh field- looking for Silkworm II so he can't do that to anyone else.

Kid Tengu kickups to his feet and tries to shoot Silkworm II.

"That seems like a strange plan, Ch--" KT says but suddenly the merit is made clear as she frees him in one magnificent slice.

He smiles gratefully as he says, "Thanks!" Despite the moment, he keeps his eyes on teh field- looking for Silkworm II so he can't do that to anyone else.

Kid Tengu kickups to his feet and tries to shoot Silkworm II but finds he's been dropped already.

He turns for the next most pressing threat- an AMA.

The AMA instance somehow looks even blanker behind his blank faceplate.

Firefly heard the explosion while joy-flying over the city. It was loud enough to be heard over her airpods. "Aleri: Stop playing!" she says and the music stops. She loops around and back, zipping to the scene from above. The five inch tall heroine is surrounding by faint flickering flame so low it's hard to see at her size, especially in daylight. She spirals down as she observes the scene, still too afraid to try a straight dive. That makes her stomach lurch. She thinks she knows who the bad guys are based on some familiar heroes from local news, and zips towards the agents to avoid being seen or heard. She thinks. o O (Okay, you can remember how to do this. Hold your hands out and breathe.) She holds out both palms and for a tiny little person, she shows why her name is Firefly. As she swoops past a row of agents, she unleashes a wave of fire that looks like it was breathed out of the maw of an enormous dragon.

Firefly hits every last one of her targets - but alas, the barely seem to notice!

Firefly rakes fire over five agents, though it's not as powerful as a focused blast. The ground is barely even scorched, even though her tiny palms are left glowing from the heat she just channeled. . o O (Ohhh, poop...)

Lennox might wish for better timing on this, but with the opposition gaining tactical wisdom, at this point there is no real choice. He closures with the nearest AMA and goes for their weapon.

Lennox had shown them one face; showing them another by dashing forward, dropping his weapon back into its combat-carry sling, and soing some funky sort of Wing Chun movement with the AMA is enough to strip the weapon away.

Five instances of AMA fire on Lennox! It might have been more, if they could surround him without risk on firing on each other.

The lone guy who spotted Firefly shoots at her.

Firefly is missed by a long shot.

The remaining 5 AMA instance 'outside' the warehouse, insofar as there's a distinction now, stay on guard for the moment.

Some 20 fire on the designated primary target: Chen!

Blasted, Lennox goes tumbling away, the blaster he had just acquired going more-or-less with him.

Chen dances and dodges and avoids. Some shot come close nut none hit.

Four each take on Dark Horse and Kid Tengu.

KT is shot multiple times- only managing to dodge one. His chitanous plating isn't enough and a good deal of the blaster fire makes it through his defenses. He's hurled off his feet and collapses unconscious.

"Sam arrives in a bright flash of burning thrusters, trailed by tiny contrails as his thrusters flare open to cut his speed quickly. "Suit, full combat mode. Prepare a wide area blast, target area painted." With that Sam paints out the area for his firing systems before the air fills with micromissiles arcing down towards the designated area as Sam flicks on his comm system. <<"So, I'm late to the party... What've we got here?">>

The blast engulfs 10 of the armoured men, but alas seems to have little effect on them.

Two of the men fire back at Samuel. The rest hold in case other heroes appear out of the woodwork.

The remaining agent doesn't attack, but heads into the back of the warehouse.

Dark Horse was knocked back by the blast that actually managed to hit him, and he's completely rattled by it. He shakes his head, getting his wits about him.

Chen assesses the situation. This battle is lost. But that makes tatics even more important. First, survive the next couple of seconds.

Kid Tengu smells buckwheat flapjacks covered in plastidip, sprinkled with sawdust.

His form shifts unnaturally, wobbling and rolling as he seems to be coming back to consciousness- though isn't there yet.

Lennox blacked out when the pulses hit him; he didn?t even feel himself hitting the ground. This is not a new experience for him, though, and the cobwebs clear themselves quickly away, soon enough for him to re-orient himself and figure out where the blaster he had grabbed has gone.

Firefly wasn't able to do much on her first pass. She must've been going too fast. She's worried as heroes go down, but she can't give up and abandon them. She loops back again to go towards some of the fallen heroes, shooting fire out from her palms at two of the agents near them.

Firefly engulfs two agents with fire as she slows near Dark Horse, whom she really does hope is a hero. The tiny heroine's voice, which sounds like a child's at this size, asks Dark Horse in rapid-fire, "What's happening? Who are these people? Are you okay? Did they just kill that trench coat guy? What do we do!?"

Two armoured men are taken by surprised and blasted out of the warehouse by the fire!

Samuel says, "Samuel watches as the smoke clears from his attack, his expression darkens under his mask as he's not only ineffective, but also hit by enemy fire, the shot seems to cut through his armour leaving him shaken as he only just manages to prevent himself falling from the sky. He recovers spinning through the air, turning his attention to the nearest target to give it a full force blast from his laser system. "Prepare a data dump. Everything from when we entered combat mode. Standard Emergency delivery protocols.""

Dark Horse winces in pain as he springs to his feet. He must have a broken bone or a harsh burn. Something for it to hurt that much. He moves in the direction the agent ran off toward, but he fires on an instance of AMA.

Dark Horse uses +BODY to increase Body statistic.

Dark Horse's shot goes wild, blasting a crate to splinters!

Lennox realizes that one of his handsis still gripping the blaster rifle; having heard the thump and slide of bodies nearby, He opens his eyes and takes a quick look. Tangos; perfect. Snapping to his feet, he moves towards one, shooting the guy as he does.

 Dark Horse says, "I spotted the weapon that drains powers. The guy was hiding behind the crate I just shot. We need to get his gun...and shoot the duplicator guy. That will solve the problem."

Any professional soldier will tell you: shooting a downed opponent is good for the soul. Lennox is no different, and taking these two out has strategic value as well.

Since Chen has made herself a nice central target all AMA instances can take a shot at - and since she is their first choice of target, since her powers have shown themselves to be so effective - most AMA instances fire upon her!

 Lennox says, "get the weapon of the agent first; priority target."

Chen is moving and dodging as effectively as she can as multiple instances of AMA shoot are her. Which is her objective to encurage. Shooting at her isn't shooting at others of the heroes. She - almost avoids every shot. But one hits home.

A couple lurking toward the back, including the one he shot at, fire on Dark Horse.

One of them misses and hits the other, knocking him off his feet!

The other one near Lennox gets off the ground and fires at Lennox.

Concentrating on evasion, the blast that does hit home hurts, burning a charred patch on her skin. Being hurt is something that's happened before. But this time there's a different reaction. Chen splits down the middle. Leaving two half size Chens.

Some 4 fire on Firefly, who made her presence know with the successful attack.

Samuel, alas, has attracted several attacks with his area attack.

Firefly figures she must be too tiny for Dark Horse to hear. That, or he's ignoring her. But she isn't too tiny to get shot by a trained agent. She lets out a tiny cry of pain as she's struck, left wobbling up and down in the air.

 Chen says, "Al, what's the situation in there? Who has the power weapon?"

Dark Horse says to Firefly, "Are you okay? We need to get that gun from that guy..." He points at the person behidn the crate that was blasted. It's a multi-barreled weapon the guy is carrying. "...and then shoot one of the various duplicates. It'll take away his powers. I think."

 Chen says, "Dark Horse, what's the situation in there? Who has the power weapon?"

 Dark Horse says, "The guy behind hte crate I just blasted. It's a multi-barreled gun. We think that's the right one."

Firefly rubs her arms. "It stings all over, but...I think I'm okay for now." She looks to where Dark Horse points. "I might be able to make it too hot for him to hold onto."

Kid Tengu was forced back to his true, unaltered form after getting shot up and knocked unconscious. As he comes to, he realizes he's still in the middle of a combat situation and he's still so woozy he isn't entirely sure what's going on- so you can bet he hasn't noticed that his true alien form is revealed.

He brings a hand up to his head and looks around, looking quite wobbly.

One thing he can be sure of is they can't charge forward like this. He armors up again, looking around for the gun he dropped in the zotting he jus trecovered from.

"What Agent?" KT asks over the link to the others as he attempts to kick up to his feet. Yup definitely still a bit woozy.

Samuel says, "There's a lot going on over Samuel's HUD at the moment, he floored one of the still unknown to him enemies and he weaves and swerves, following the guidance of the HUD and his own calculations as he swerves and weaves narrowly avoiding the enemy fire. "I need to get a target... Get me something I can shoot." It's futile for now, the evasive systems not letting him get a clear shot."

The alien youth gets to his feet deftly- rolling toward the weapon when he spots it and then he sprints straight for that forklift to use it as cover.

Firefly speeds off ahead of Dark Horse toward the target. She loops, flits, and moves like a butterfly, stings like a bullet ant. She focuses on the gun, trying to make it heat up so much it hurts to keep holding it.

The surprised agent drops the searingly hot gun!

Firefly makes the weapon glow bright yellow and orange as it's surrounded by hot plasma.

The agent's howls of pain, however, do draw some attention...

Chen #2 takes the weapon for the other Chen and shoots at the nearest AMA instance.

The gun begins sucking some sort of Kirby-crackling energy out of AMA, but it clearly hasn't finished its work...

After shooting Chen #2 calls out, "Lennox, grab this weapon and shoot again.

Lennox dives through the wrecked wall, leaving his weapon behind, to come up, grab, and fire the searing-hot weapon.

"Get the power extractor back!" shouts the agent with the burned hands, and he and the other agent dash towards it....

Lennox grabs the power extractor, but the searing heat is too much for a moment, and he drops to his knees in pain as his palms crisp.

Dark Horse opens fire with the blaster he grabbed at one of the agents that just ran past him. After all, that power extractor is the key.

Kid Tengu peeks out from cover and tries to provide some cover fire for the heroes against the multitudes of AMAs while the others go after the stellar-heated power-draining gun.

He fires down range, more concerned about keeping the AMAs busy so they can't easily engaging with the others inside. He'll move to follow afterwards.

Dark Horse shoots the agent from behind, dropping his target, unconscious.

Dark Horse fires again, on another of the agents trying to track down the power extractor.

Dark Horse's shot stuns the agent in question, causing him to stumble.

Kid Tengu makes a run to catch up with the others- using his clinging to round the building so he can fire down on anyone who isn't on their side who might be reaching for that glowing looking weapon. He knows he doesn't want to grab it.

Firefly's hands are still wreathed in glowing energy along with the gun as she stares in horror at all the heroes diving onto the obviously dangerously hot gun. "At least wait for me to cool it down!" She draws in a breathe along with the heat, the gun cooling down. The heroes are now really hurt, and the agents are advancing.

Firefly speeds toward the dropped weapon to try and pick it up with both hands by the handle, but she can't get a grip on it.

Firefly speeds toward the dropped weapon to try and pick it up with both hands by the handle, carrying it onwards to drop it in Kid Tengu's hands.

Kid Tengu doesn't hesitate, he takes the gun and levels it at the same target the others shot.

More Kirby-crackliness is sucked from Another-Man's Army into the gun.... and all the other instances of him wink out of existence, complete with their gear!!

The stunned AMA is not so foolish as to keep fighting, nor is the remaining agent.

KT looks visibly relieved as he looks around and takes stock of things. He breathes a sigh of relief as he hops down from teh wall.

"Nice move." KT says to Firefly appreciatively.

One of the 6 outer 'barrels' of the gun is now lit up. A prompt message suggesting labelling it comes up.

Firefly lets out a sigh of relief and starts to descend to the ground. Even when her feet touch the ground, she continues to sink to her knees. "Was it? I think I did way more harm than good," the small voice replies.

The two pint sized Chens look at eack other. "This is... weird," they say in unison. Then lose cohesion and slump into a pair of goopy puddles.

AMA's head sinks. So much for the glorious life of a powered villain! Back to goonhood - after, likely, a stint in jail...

Dark Horse gives Firefly a thumb's up. "Good job."

Firefly raises a tiny thumbs up. "So what the heck was happening here? Where'd they all go?"

"Well- I mean, you didn't make everyone dogpile the superheated weapon." KT surmises, realizing his alien form is on display. "The heroes of Colonial Bay are brave- but sometimes prove to be foolish. It is a fun game to play along with." He says in his actual rhythm of speaking before assuming something a bit more down-to-Earth & heroic.

"See." KT offers to Firefly as Dark Horse agrees.

Lennox hisses as the weapon is snatched away from his hands, taking with it bits of charred skin and flesh, but that is regrowing with almost frightening speed. A moment later, he looks up at the man who used to be AMA, and exhales fast and hard. Climbing deliberately to his feet, he walks over to the other (presumably disarmed) man and says mildly, "Apparently you did not believe me. Well, first things first: off with the armor."

Dark Horse nods to Firefly. "These guys..." He poitns to the agents and AMA, "...were attacking metas in Chinatown. Stealing their powers. To try to set themselves up as a new gang, I think."

Dark Horse points to hte gun, "That...steals the powers. And probably can give them to someone else."

KT makes a point of memorizing the smells of everyone around as you can't ever be too careful.

He nods and goes to check on the Chen-piles to make sure she's alright. he's never seen her do that before.

AMA sighs and removes his armour. "Nothing personal. Just doing my job. Almost worked, too. I'm amazed you believed that line I fed you to lure you here. If that shapeshifter hadn't proved just so hard to hurt ths woulld have gone all differently...

Chen says, "The gooy piles are slowly flowing toward each other."

Dark Horse nods to AMA, "So...who are you working for?"

Firefly listens to the explanation. "Good thing you guys stopped them." She finally floats up to her feet again and starts rising up to eye level for more heroes.

AMA shrugs. "SCALLOP, whoever they are, like I said. I wasn't lying about that."

Kid Tengu nudges the Chen goops towards one another to help facilitate her rejoining, trying not to visibly bristle at AMA's post-loss gloating.

Dark Horse walks over to AMA, "Given what you pulled on us, I'm inclined to hit you again. Several times. Tell us EVERYTHING you know about them."

Lennox nods companionably. "Well, I've been there, so I know how it is to be the little guy. That said, it's not like there isn't a punishment for lying." And he breaks the guy's dominant forearm -- both bones.

AMA says, "I pretty much already did! Except I lied about the power machine in this warehouse. They actuallly gave me the powers at the house, using that gizmo you've got there. If you want to know more, I suggest asking the others. They've been with SCALLOP longer than me,."

With the helpful nudge fro KT the two piles of ggop flow together and then rise up forming into Chen. "Very weird. Thanks KT. Great word throughout by the way. Be happy to work alongside you again any time."

And then he yelps as his bones are broken.

Firefly covers her helmet where her mouth is and lets out a little shriek of terror at the sudden torture.

Dark Horse blinks and says to Lennox, "Wow. No. Knock it off."

"Wait...are you guys even heroes?! Did I just help the rival bad guys!?" Firefly panics as she floats back away from the gathering.

Kid Tengu perks up at Chen's rejoining and her complimentary comment. He even smiles a bit. "It certainly was. I learned a lot- so I'd like that too." He replies before flinching and snapping his head back to see why AMA is squeeling like that.

His eyes go wide in surprise. He didn't know any of the heroes of Earth 1-A had that in them.

His evasion took Samuel out of the fight until it was all over, he comes back, he touches down with a frown. <<"So, what did I happen in on?">> He doesn't seem concerned about the torture, his attention turning to AMA for a moment. <<"Studies suggest torture doesn't get truthful answers. It's a waste of our time.">>

AMA's speech is now more or less constrained to swearing at Lennox.

Dark Horse puts a hand up to try to placate Firefly, "Seriously...you helped the heroes here." He grimaces, "Though clearly that's a wide variety of heroes. I was intending to threaten, not actually hurt a prisoner.

Firefly stops floating back, but still has her hands over her mouth and isn't sure.

This isn't torture; this is /education/. "Let's start again, shall we?" Lennox says calmly to AMA. "And please, be honest this time. I'm a mercenary, not a hero; I have onligations, and you're getting in my way. Start from the beginning."

KT watches- agreeing that this is most educational.