Log:Powerless in Chinatown, Scene 6

Powerless in Chinatown 2021/03/05 	 Chen Diva Felix Kid Tengu Lennox Nara Union Another Man's Army 6

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.

The heroes have managed to lure out an agent of their mysterious adversary (Chen pretended to be One Man Army to prompt an investigation). They caught him - as it turned out, the man who had planted the cameras in the alley and in some other places in Chinatown - and persuaded him to talk, in exchange for his being allowed to go free with his reputation with Rent-a-Goon unmarred. As a lowly hired goon he didn't not know terribly much, but he told the heroes certain things of import, such as that he has also installed cameras outside Steel's Gym and where he met the intermediate who hired him: a house in Upper East Side, where (supposedly) his teleporter watch should take its user.

The heroes have entered the house, to find it occupied by 9 (now 11) instances of someone with powers suspiciously like One Man Army's, though armed and armoured like the men involved in the attacks on the Chinatown metas. Currently, the fight it is two rooms, a downstairs living room and the upstairs landing. Lennox, Dark Horse and Nara (and a damaged barrier) are upstairs; the other heroes are downstairs. 

Nara abruptly closes the distance between themselves and the gunman not being looked at by Lennox at that moment. The light construct surrounding the pair vanishes and Nara emits a flash of light to overwhelm the visual senses.

Lennox recovers from bouncing against the back wall of the hard-light shield; it's a half-step towards his attacker, pistol going into its holster and the matching baton sliding out for a professional triple-strike at his opponent.

Sabre has kept her left eye on the instance who replicated himself. Swing her extended tail around like a whip she attempts to slam his head into a wall by sheer force.

The guy is knocked onto his backside.

Kid Tengu frowns as the room creeps closer to capacity. He decides to stick to the ceiling- and so the cells in his arms rapidly multiply and split into a second pair of arms and a tail (with a hand on its tip) to make rising above the crowd a bit easier.

The alien shifter throws himself hands first at the nearest copy of AMA to use him as a human shield. Five razor clawed hands fly at this copy of AMA- ahead of the saber-toothed feline shaped teen. No not Chen/Sabre. The other one. They've got a theme going on.

Sabre hastily calls out, "Someone put this one out. I'm sure he's the master version. Which means he's the one that can duplicate."

Lennox recovers from bouncing against the back wall of the hard-light shield; it's a half-step towards his attacker, pistol going into its holster and the matching baton sliding out for a professional triple-strike at his opponent.

Kid Tengu flies right past number four and instead gets 5 handfuls of holoscreen.

KT looks over to where Sabre indicates, since that seems like a good plan to him. He doesn't cling to his mistake since there are more immediate things to deal with, still his grin is gone and isntead there is a quiet look of determination on that face.

Getting thumped onto his backside must have jarred something loose, because Lennox fumbles the snap-out. It takes him a percious moment to recover the baton and move forward, but the swipes that follow are sloppy, too soon, and miss his intended mook.

Felix watches the battle unfolding and his attention goes to the one who Kid Tengu tried to grab and said was the kingpin duplicator. He reaches back into his backpack and takes out a small ball of string. He throws it at the figure, trying to avoid hitting anyone else.

Well that didn't work! Diva shoots the gun and the gun does.. not spectacularily explode. How disappointing. "See people? Some people cling to their guns like waaaay too much! Even when they're lying on the floor wondering what just hit them! I~ said~ drop~ it~" Diva ends in a bit of distorted electronic singsong. And if the gun doesn't drop, the badguy holding it better! Diva sends another stream of energy at the offending bad guy!

Ohh this is just a clone? Ehehe.. *scrubscrub feed so there's only the dramatic sound of battle and not the shouting of "Hit that one!" Gotta look good for the fans.

The string covered ball bearing flies through the air to land on the preseumed kindgpin duplicator's chest. It explodes in a profusion of string that encases the figure even wrigggling under him to bind him fully.

Sabre looks at the entsngled AMA instance and grins. Ever seen a sabre tooth tiger grin? "I'm really hungry," licks lips with tongue. "And there's a meal ready to eat. Or you could call back all the duplicates and allow me to get something from the market. No pressure. Take your time. About three seconds of it."

The black and grey clad Felix does a silent fist pump as he hits his target. <> he thinks.

The man is blasted back into the wall he just stood up from being hit into.

Dark Horse decides to go for style points rather than effectiveness. He moves toward one end of the landing, attempting to wall run a few steps before pushing off and ending with a jumping side kick.

Dark Horse lands cleanly...and strikes solidly, driving his boot into his target's midsection.

The man makes a satisfying 'unfff!' sound, but is still standing.

Hearing the window break, Union runs around the corner of the house, to find a goon standing up, a 'ray gun' in his hand. She kicks at the gun, hoping to knock it out of said hand.

Union's kick sends the gun flying, right into the shrubbery at the base of the fence.

Nara arrives at Lennox's location, the construct vanishing behind them.

Dark Horse follows up and quickly strikes the same target, but with a punch this time. A straight left.

Dark Horse shakes his head as soon as he makes contact, knowing he's going to have to hit harder than that.

Sabre pads over the prone and entangled ANA #1 and opens mouth, bathing his face in hot tiger breath. "Decision time. Call the duplicates off and back or it's lunch time - for me."

For her effort, Sabre can enjoy the delightful smell of evacuated bowels. But the dupicator has learnt since last time, and the effect does not cascade to his duplicates...

Sabre backs off trying not to breathe, and definitely not through the nose. Speaking in Chinese, "Yuhuang Dadi, that's disgusting!" Sometimes having acurely sensitive senses is a handicap.

Continuing the movement that sent the gun flying, Union spins around. This time her foot should land in his solar plexus.

Kid Tengu assumes that Sabre & Felix have the Original AMA under wraps, and so he moves to back their play. He bulks up a bit for the task and leaps to a position to be a shield wall for Sabre's lunchtime privacy- at least until OG AMA makes a decision.

The smell that wafts from AMA's decision making process prompts KT to stretch his tail out as he himself backs away. As he does the hand on the tip of his tail closes into a fist- one aimed right for the stinkiest of AMAs.

Union's kick lands on-target, sending the goon stumbling back about a dozen feet before he falls.

Sabre glances at KT. "Remind me not to do that again."

"Oh- I definitely will not forget this." KT replies as his fist makes contact with the prone AMA. "What do you suppsoe he ate to make such an awful smell?"

KT's strike is true but he probably should have gone for the head.

Still AMA is sent sailing into the wall back- much farther away from those with the most sensitve noses.

Felix blinks behind his steampunk-styled goggles then says in a slightly agrrieved tone, "Next time I fashion one you can pucnh through, KT," as the soild AMA gets punched away as well.

"Who knew that'd come in handy?" KT offers sympathetically. "But that would be appreciated, Felix."

Sabre's tail shrinks to become just a tail as she grows an extra limb from each shoulder. She extends the tentacle like limbs to, if KT and Felix allow, briefly and lightly resy on their shoulders, "I really like you guys. Youever need an extra arm or six call me."

Lennox batters the man he's facing to the ground, though he's not managing to do much through the armour.

Kid Tengu grins and likes being appreciated. "We are pretty great- and /we/ do make a pretty good team." KT replies cheerfully, revealing a very human-like vain streak. "I may just have to do that. It is very nice not being the only shifter in the room."

The three instances of AMA upstairs fire wildly at their respective targets, being blinding just as they were pulling the triggers!

&#35;1 curls up into foetal position, utterly terrified by the sabretooth, even though it's retreated.

Felix twists slightly under the tentacle from Sabre to get out from its touch and says nothing.

&#35;2 scarmbles across the ground outside to retrieve his gun again.

Sabre pulls the tentacle back from where Felix is without it ever touching him.

&#35;3 fires the sci-fi gun at Sabre!

&#35;4, whom KT missed, shoots at KT.

&#35;6 gets up *again*, shooting at Diva.

Diva's shot squarely! but it goes right through her with a flicker of static. Diva squeeks!

&#35;5 and &#35;10 shoot, coordinated, at Sabre. Because tiger!

KT is struck and knocked into 5 minutes from now- his whole form sags a bit as he's (con)stunned.

&#35;11, alas for Sabre's theory! splits off two new duplicates (12 and 13).

And, to add insult to injury, in a double BAMF two more instances teleport in. One ends up standing on the sofa; the other, unfortunately for him, arrives in a space above people's heads and starts falling to the ground.

The two newcomers are armed with the tranq guns.

Felix reaches back into his backpack and takes out a rune engraved flashlight. He looks at the various people and their positions, sticks out his arm at a 45 degree angle, twsits the direction of the flashlight slightly then flips its swithc. A flash of blindingly brilliant sunlight explodes out of the lenses for an instant hitting only AMAs.

The brilliant flash of sunlight dazzles #4, #5, 4, and #15. The last two are the one's who just telepotsed in. Apparantly the brightness stings a little given one cried out. Perhaps just in surprise though.

Diva looks up when .. more people teleport in? She gives an audible bit of a sigh "These guys aren't gonna end, are they?" she asks in the room in general. "ESPECIALLY THIS ONE!" She cries out in a bit of frustration as she shoots .again.

An instant after being blinded, #6 impacts the badly-damaged wall once again - and slumps into unconsciousness.

Diva takes a deep breath. "Ahahaha. one down! .. umpthy million to goooooooo. Wonder if there's any way to turn the teleporting off. Or trace it to the source?"

Dark Horse realizes he needs to hit harder, so he pivots, and comes around with a back kick, trying to knock out the single instance of his opponent. "This will be bad if he keeps splitting faster that we can take him out. Anyone know One Man's Army's weakness aside from that weird ray gun?"

It's the best hit Dark Horse has landed to date, though this high-tech armour is annoyingly effective.

Sabre says, "If they are anything like my aunts, stunning one will stun them all."

"Let's jsut try to keep them from evacuating their insides." KT says in response.

Dark Horse shakes his head, "The only thing I can think of is...a vulnerability to telepathy. He's otherwise a normal dude. Well, unless the weirdo ray gun can stack powers on a recipient."

Felix says, "Well, several are down so they're not like your aunts. It's just on the edge of my thoughts...what was it>"

Sabre stands unmoving, lacking the willpower to act.

Union strides over to the crawling goon and kicks him in the side.

His armour, alas, takes the brunt of the kick.

"Oh, to hell with this," snarls Lennox and, reflexively holstering one of the combat batons, does something complicated with his now-free hand and the other baton to take the blaster rifle away from his instance.

Kid Tengu 's form begins retracting back into something less soft & shifting into an alien hue as the intervening moments pass.

As he comes to completely his form solidifes entirely.

He blinks the haze away as he recounts what happens. His eyes pop open and lock on the one who shot him- #4!!!

His Cline habit of displaying a range of angry colors across his flesh with spines to accompany indicates his rage.

Lennox's maneuver twists the rifle about, sending it skittering back along the hallway behind him. To get to it, the AMA will have to go through him.

Felix looks over atht the cluster of AMAs near where the mustliplying been giong on. He darts forward, grabs the back of a chair, flips up into the air and, as he's coming down, turns the flashlight on the groups of them.

The group of four AMAs (let's call them #10-#13) are blinded by the flash of sunlight. Once again one of them calls out in surprise.

Diva reaches down to scoop the weird gun up, looking at it at all angles in her hands. "Anyone have any idea why this one is different?" She asks. She's .. looking at other heros, but nobody in particular. Maybe she's looking at the space between them, to get as mch of the action as possible now that it's not single locked onto her. Ah what the heck, she pewpews at harmless part of the wall with it, too. She can probably hit the wall.

Diva frowns a bit as she hits the wall - though feet off of where she intended. She's really bad at this. "Does anyone who can shoot want this?" Diva asks. She's just holding her time, seeing if something useful happens. She's going to get tired if she's just going to keep shooting rapidly multiplying mooks!

Sabre partially wakes from the effect of being shot by the strange weapon. She sees the tide of battle turning and resolves to last long enough for the others to either overcome the increasing numbers of opposition or vacate safely. She changes from tiger to Shaolin Master and with increased agility attempt to wrest the alien gun from the user's hands.

Sabre takes a coulpe of steps and reverse knuckles the back of the hand of a tranq pistol user. As his hand reflecively opens from the impact to a nerve cluster she snatches the pistol out of the air and spins it around to seat in her hand.

Dark Horse takes one more spinning kick at his current opponent, and he says to Diva, "If it's the gun I think it is, it removes and grants powers. Maybe try targeting one of the duplicates with it?"

The spinning kick knocks the guy into the wall, from whence he falls flat on his face, motionless.

Diva walks up so she's basically point blank to the mook and shoots his own rifle at him.

The shot has no obvious effect on the unconscious target.

Sabre recalls how effective the dart pistols were. So she whirls and bounces off a wall and then a chair, moving in a fast erratic motion to make targeting her difficult as she shoots the user of the other tranq pistol with the one she just aqquired.

Union summons up her chi for a powerful blow, delivered to the middle of the goon's back.

The force of the blow slams his face into the dirt, but the goon doesn't stop moving.

Kid Tengu is a bit more composed now. His visual display of anger is now ready for a direct deposit.

KT's abilities lend them selves to a practical thought process- and so he foregoes leaping up and ripping into #4 as he intended. Instead- his tail darts across the room to grab one of the free tranq weapons.

"This one's abilities are not as fun as I originally expected them to be. We should deal with them quickly before we are overrun." He says quietly to Felix & Chen just before Chen makes off to do jsut that.

"Yes- exactly like that!" KY exclaims.

He of course uses the conspiratory commentary to cover up what his loooooooooooooong tail is up to.

Kid Tengu retracts his tail and aims it at the same time- aiming for one of the remaining AMAs. It just happens to be #4.

He'll tell you he doesnt carry grudges and that shooting #4 was the most tactically sound thing to do because he was one of the few unaffected by Felix's ocular wipeout.

But he'd be lying.

He pulls the trigger without hesitation.

&#35;4 flops to the ground, like a marionette with its strings cyts

Jian grins and salutes with the pistol in her hand, "Nice move, KT. I think it's about time for us to go hunting!"

Turning, Lennox takes a few quick steps down to the rifle, scooping it up to turn it upon its former user.

KT grins at Jian, blowing the barrel of his aquired weapon with a mirthful look of pride written on his face.

He returns the salute.

Another Man's Army takes mental stock. It doesn't take long. Most of him who are still conscious are blind - and he has no idea for how long. Only two of him are really in a position to act - one of them kicked almost into unconsciousness by Union. The only guy in a good state is the third man on the landing who somehow seems to have been forgotten. It's not enough. All of him that can drop their weapons at once, and put their hands on their heads. "I yield."

It takes the merc only an instant to figure out the hi-tech weapon; most guns built for humans run along only two or three very narrow lines of design. Looking over at the AMA, he instinctively shoulders the rifle properly, then center-of-mass shoots the guy climbing to his feet. *WHOP* and the duplicate goes back to his buttocks, then slumps to the floor in unconsciousness. "Figures," Lennox mutters.

This is time for celebration! A loud, musical, triumphant ditty plays throughout the house for a few bars. Diva jumps up and down giggling, "Yay! We did it!"

Jian sighs, "No. NO! You still have a chance. Keep fighting. A least until I run out of darts for this." She waves the pistol.

Felix just reached up and took a cryztalline orb out of his backpack when AMA surrenders. "Well, damn, now won;t get to test the new formulation..."

Felix then darks over and starts kicking the weapons away from the AMAs

KT pauses, but keeps his bristley state - turning to cover Felix while he disarms the unconscious ones so no one gets shot in the back.

Union grabs the ray gun, then urges the goon to his feet, around the corner and into the house.

When the goon surrenders, Union grabs the ray gun, then urges him to his feet, around the corner and into the house.

AMA puts up no resistance. He's a professional. He was beaten, he surrendered.

Jian point to one of the disarmed AMA clones. "You, lose the armor and any teleport device you have. Then take this one," she points to Mr. Brown Pants, "and get him cleaned up and showered."

"Felix, check this out!" calls Union, and tosses him the ray gun.

Lennox turns back towards the third on the upper landing, regarding him for a moment, then gestures with his head towards the one he'd just shot. "Drag yourself downstairs. BOTH of your selves."

Felix grabs the ray gun Union tosses his and starts to examine it as requested.

Diva will collect the teleport gizmos and try to figure out anything she can from them. How they work, where the came from. if they have any callback options.

AMA divests himself of armour and weapons as demanded, and takes himself to get cleaned up.

Lennox stalks downstairs, getting the various Another Man's Army set up in spaces where they're more than a double-arm's-length-lunge away from each other, and appears to check out the weapon. "Here's how this is going to go. You're going to answer questions; we're going to judge the veracity of the answers. If you're truthful, we let one of you combine back. If you're not, I'm going to shoot one of you again. Understand?" It's always good to establish the ground rules.

Sabre was shot by the weapon Felix is looking at. It seemed to depress her wipplower and motivation to act for a period.

Felix murmurs as he examines the ray gun after carefully opening it with a tooi that, well, changes into other tools as he needs. "Hmm...Interesting...Weird, that shouldn't work...All Earth tech though...Whoever built this is mad or brilliant...Probably both..." He glances over at Chen then asks, "So, how'd it make you feel? You seemed out of it but not stunned."

Chen says, "Weird. It was like I suddenly didn't care what was happening all that much. And couldn't decide what to do about the little I did care. Nasty sensation."

Diva stares at the device for a moment, not bothering to open it up and peek at the insides or anything useful like that, then sticks it in a pocket. "Kinda useless. Just lets people come .. here. doesn't say where it came from." Diva blinks, then shrugs her shoulders with a guiless smile. "Umn.. good luck with .. wahtever this was about!" she titters, then *hops* and derez in a burst of static. The teleporter clatters to the floor where she was standing.

Felix looks at the ray gun then puts it in his backpack. "Well, just as a shot in the dark, it interferes with the synapses. I wonder if it's psitech?" As he ponders this he wanders over to pock up the teleporter thing that Diva left behind. He looks at it, then starts to open it up as well to examine.

This guy is cool under questioning. "I'm under no obligation to tell you you who my employer is. Or anything about him."

Chen looks at Lennox, "He's probably right. I say we just let him go. In a few minutes. After I call Dread to let him know what we found and where."

"Your employer is or has access to SOTA technology. Teleporters don;t grow on trees. He has access to private facilities to make off the book weapons. He has access to or is a technological genius. He has some interest in the Chinese metas." Felix cointues as he unscrews a bolt. "He wishes trouble between the factions in Chinatown and to de-power the former Chinese national metas. I'd think it's the Dragon Emperor or people in his employ. But, I distrust goverements, so..."

Lennox shrugs. "Absolutely correct, you're not. But see, you're not a prisoner of war in a verified combat zone, nor a criminal arrested by the cops. You are, at /best/, a terrorist captured by some kids and a couple of men of questionable -- and in my particular case, at-hire -- virtue. Which means that the faster you answer, the more likely you'll be turned over to people who give a crap about your human rights." He glances towards Chen, then shrugs. "That might be doable. I mean, I'd stick around, but ..."

Chen pouts, "I'll have you know," she tells Lennox, "my virture is untouched. I'm waiting for someone to.. well I'm waiting for someone."

It's the threat of Dread that seems to have the most impact. He clearly knows the abilities of the Chinatown metas, at least. He thinks about it. . o O (I'll lose my job if I spill anything. But then, is that so bad? I've got these powers now! Getting more work should be a breeze now...)

Lennox gestures with his thumb back towards Dark Horse, watching the AMA. "Meant him. By the by," he adds to the mook, "it's definitely of note that your powers are stolen, and they're going to get taken back. I don't know what cutting off a body part or two on one will do to the core version of you, but I'm keen to find out." He glances at the others. "Which one you want me to start with?"

He decides to brazen it out. "Can the threats. You're heroes, right? There's only so much you'll do. But, if you want me to talk - I want protection from the Tim Lee. And my boss."

He adds, to make it clear, "I"m keeping these powers, or I'm telling you nothing."

Lennox blinks. "Why the hell do you think we're heroes? I mean the kids, maybe, sure, some of them, but I'm a merc. I /kill/ people like you. For a living." He tilts his head, then sighs. "Right. Pick an example," he says, standing up.

Union says to Felix and KT, "Let's take a walk outside."

Felix murmurs, "It's likely they'll fade in time in any case. Most grafted power do. And, really, I don't care," says Felix absently as works on the teleporter. "I mean, unles they kill you. That happens as well at times." He looks over at the speaking AMA. "Well, we can get the police to protect you. But only if you grass on your boss."

Chen pulls out a PDA. Places a call. "Hi, Battery. Nice to hear your voice again... Yes... Yes, I'd love to join you for tea... Hold a minute." She looks at Lennox, "Let's not get rash. We don't know what chopping a limb off would do when OMA takes his power back."

Felix's tone has shaded more Scots and more clinical as he speaks.

Chen chuckles, "Oh, and if you think I'm sa

Felix slowly heads towards the door after Union.

Lennox snorts, stepping down the line of unconscious AMAs, several of whom are in armor. "Limb ... hm. Interesting idea. Sure, maybe he keeps the power, but what happens if we 'remove' all the duplicates but one?"