Log:Too Many Cooks

2008/12/18 	 Parham Lightray Jennifer and Jessica Sir Crimson Rebound Imaginary Girl Brawn Character Rocket Snowman Bubble 1

It's late evening in Chinatown. The moon is partly hidden by cloud, but it's warm for the time of year and dry. This late and in winter, Ming Street lacks its daytime bustle, but still does good business, notably in its restaurants.

Jennifer is in Chinatown again showing her face in an effort to keep the situation under control. She's alert and watching for trouble although not especially looking for it. Jessica is snug and comfy on the roof of a high-rise building overlooking the market area with a pair of military specification light enhancing binoculars watching rooftops and as much of the area out of Jennifer's sight as possible.

Imaginary Girl floats along through the area, about two stories up - above the lampposts in the area, at least. She's been criss-crossing this part of town, as if searching for someone or something in particular.

Joseph sits outside a teahouse enjoying a cup of nice hot Golden Oolong. He watches the crowd as he talks to his companion.

Sir_Crimson is high in the sky being discreet as always. He rides a glowly red winged horse and similar energy crackles around him. A shining red form in the nights sky visible to everyone in miles.

Parham is smiling as he watches Joseph sipping his tea, standing with his hands on the small of his back. His eyes catch something in the sky and he looks up, not seeing anything at first. He continues looking around carefully, and catches sight of Imaginary Girl, not sure whether she saw him or not.

Joseph murmurs to Parham, "Its a very nice night for this time of year. I do hope we get snow for Christmas though."

Imaginary Girl does, indeed, spot Parham, and the glowing horseman, of course. Descending towards Parham, she's all smiles. "Heya, Parham!", she calls down as she comes down to hover with her feet a few inches off the sidewalk. "I'm glad to see someone I know!", she adds. "Do you know how to get in touch with Lorelei? I totally lost track of her!"

Jennifer frowns and breaks into a run heading towards the Emerald Palace restaurant. She puts out a call on the team communicator as she does, while Jessica call in the fire to the fire department.

Imaginary Girl suddenly looks around, across the street and up the block just a little ways. "Someone's in trouble!", she says to no one in particular. She flits back up into the air, her path describing an arc over and towards the restaurant named 'Emerald Palace'.

Parham smiles happily at IG as he nods at Joseph. "Yes, warms you up." he says to him, and then looks at IG. He ponders a little and then says, "She is busy most..." he is stopped in mid-sentence as everyone (well, mostly everyone) seems to run towards the restaurant. "You heard that too?" he tells Joseph, "there seems to be some trouble in there.". He points to the restaurant towards which IG moved a few seconds earlier.

 Jennifer says, "Fire in Chinatown. Emerald Palace restaurant."

Joseph nods. "Yes, I did. You go ahead. I will call the authorities." He stands as he speaks to Parham.

By the time the heroes are arriving people are already hurrying from the front door of the restaurant. Orange flames can be seen at the back of the restaurant through the window - the fire seems to have taken hold pretty quickly.

Sir_Crimson is already flying toward the restaurant at top speed. His steed carrying him as fast as it's wings can pump.

Jennifer sighs, "Why does it always have to be fire?" as she crashes in through a window and makes her way towards where the fire is burning. Her breather mask comes out as she moves.

Imaginary Girl pauses, hovering over the crowd. Then Jennifer smashes through the window. "Hey! You shouldn't go smashing through windows, you know!", she says... but the window's already smashed. Still, Imaginary Girl flits up into the air and over the building towards the back of it.

Joseph stands and makes his way over to a nearby alleyway after Parham leaves. He steps back into the alleyway, then after a moment, Lightray rises out of the alleyway and over the buildings towards the Emerald Palace.

Rebound enters from MagLev System.

Parham dodges and weaves his way through the hurrying crowd that seem to be running in every direction, trying to get to the door. He tries to keep an eye on both IG and Joseph, just in case something goes wrong on the outside. Suddenly getting an idea, he tries to open a way for himself telekinetically. In that brief instant that his eyes scan the scene in front of him, he loses sight of Joseph and IG. He opens his mouth to curse and then thinks better of it, paying more attention to what he is doing.

Jessica maintains her position of the roof of the high-rise building overlooking the scene. She dials up the magnification of the binocs and examines the area behind the restaurant for fleeing arsonists.

Jennifer runs through the dining area of the restaurant using the tables at stepping stones to miss departing customers and goes straight into the burning back area looking for any trapped staff. Flame emitting metas will also get her attention of course.

 Jennifer says, "Anyone in Chinatown region?"

 Jennifer says, "Anyone in Chinatown region?"

 Jennifer says, "New hero about to encounter meta villain on her own behind restaurant. She could do with a hand."

 Rebound says, "I'm on my way from Bridgend. Should be there any moment."

 Jennifer says, "Hi, Rebound. Also ACRO agents armed with the latest and greatest carbines."

 Jennifer says, "Update on last. Probably Pride's Triad goons with ACRO weapons. Still dangerous."

 Rebound says, "Ok. What about the fire...? Saving innocents seems like the priority."

 Jennifer says, "Two maybe more trapped in kitchen. I'm on that. Customers are getting clear. I can handle the fire side."

Howl enters from Bridgend.

Parham gives up on trying to enter the building; it's just too much trouble. He instead decides to have a look around the building and see if he can find anything at the back.

Rebound jumps down to the street level from the maglev platform. He reaches for the vertical arm of a street light mid jump and tries to swing around it once before flipping towards the alley behind the restaurant.

At the back of the restaurant are some five black-clad figures with high-tech rifles. There's also another black-clad figure rocketing along the alley. On seeing Rebound's clumsy arrival, he shoots something at him from his arm, which makes a rocketlike noise.

Rebound slips on his landing. He tries to tumble and salvage his touchdown, and he ends up offbalance on his feet.

The rocket, for so it is, strikes Imaginary Girl, who threw herself in front of it.

Imaginary Girl is knocked back into Rebound by the force.

Look out!", Imaginary Girl calls out as she sees Rebound, off-balance, targeted. She swoops into the way and takes the rocket to her chest, instead... and the blast knocks her back into Rebound. At least he didn't eat a rocket..?

Lightray flies up over the buildings to get a view of the surrounding area. He looks down to try to spot anyone hiding and observing the building chaos.

Rebound only just has time to turn his head as Imaginary Girl protects him from the rocket blast. His body stretches slightly to cushion the impact when she is propelled into him.

Rebound says to Imaginary Girl. "Thanks... you alright?"

The 5 men with guns retreat in a panic, but firing as they go. One chooses to fire at Parham, one at Imaginary Girl, and the other 3 at the flying man.

The flying man is struck twice and hits a wall - knocking a hole in it.

Imaginary Girl gets hit again even as Rebound's asking her if she's okay and gets throw back away from him, slamming face-first into a brick wall. She doesn't go through it, though. "Ow...!", she comments.

Parham just stands there as the bullet shot at him flies past him. "Whoa!" he says, looking around in bewilderment. It seems to have been going fast for him to catch up...

Rebound relaxes a bit, seeing that his mystery savior is still relatively unharmed. "I think I'm supposed to be helping /you/ out... Let me return the favor." He turns towards the gunmen and prepares to act.

The flying man picks himself up from amidst the rubble and fires a projectile at one of the men who fired on him.

The man goes flying into a wall, with a crack of bones.

Jessica watches the combat behind the restaurant while searching the MIA database, and her own memory, looking for any match with the known Tim Lee metas, and if so any known weaknesses she can relay to Rebound.

Four more dark-clad figures are approach the restaurant from behind.

Jennifer simply moves to the trapped people in the kitchen using casual strength to knock any burning objects away from their escape routes. Where the structure is burning she'll smack through a side wall to open another escape route, avoiding the rear wall. No point in the trappees escapting the fire by running into the scene of a firefight.

 Jennifer says, "Four more approaching. Metas. Tim Lee's new guys. One's a brick. Searching for data on the others."

One of the figures is moving about in big leaps. One, the only woman, is surrounded by some sort of bubble. The others looks normal enough, so far, and aren't carrying weapons or obvious armour.

Jessica thinks. o O (Next time I bring a sniper rifle.)

Rebound repeats for the benefit of the other's present: "Those metas work for a man called Tim Lee. One's a brick. I'm guessing it's obvious which one." He points out the newly arriving people to show who he's talking about.

Jennifer looks up as the ceiling as it creaks and sags after she punches out out of the supporting pillars by accident in the smoke. Then she spots another person laying unconscious on the floor. "Get out!" she tells the people able to exit and turning, starts to move over towards the last trapped restaurant chef.

The flying guy blasts another of the armed men.

This one too hits a wall and collapses to the ground.

The woman in the bubble closes and gestures toward the fleeing men,

A bubble appears, but missing its target, instead cutting through a chunk of wall behind the man, further destabilising the restaurant.

Parham focusses on the third man in the approaching group whose power is not known yet, the one who is standing immediately beside the woman in the bubble, trying to lift him up and throw him against the nearby wall.

The man promptly disintegrates into - a pile of snow?

Rebound leaps toward the tough-looking leaping man. He tries to stretch his body and land over him like a net, pulling tight if he connects.

Parham looks around in disbelief. "What the..." he mutters, his eyes darting around as if wondering whether the guy would spring up from somewhere close by.

Rebound wraps himself around the big guy. "We can't have you tear up Chinatown with your personal feud with Pride."

Imaginary Girl floats back away from the wall into which she'd been slammed. Turning, she flits over towards the girl with the bubbles, throwing a punch at her!

Lightray shakes his head as he fires a bolt of sunlight down at the bouncing brick. "Catch!"

The mighty punch glances off the bubble surrounding the girl targeted by Imaginary Girl.

The bolt of sunlight strikes the ground near, but not, on the remaining meta.

The last man lets out a bit of an oof and is knocked back along the alley.

Lightray watches the unknown meta be knocked down the alleyway. He moves a little lower over the alleyway.

The last meta gets up from the ground. Not have a good line on sight on Lightray he instead traces a fiery character in the air in the direction of Parham. From this a bolt of lightning shoots, striking Parham and knocking him out!

Parham has time to look in the direction through which the bolt of lightning came at him, before he falls to the flor.

The brick tries to break free of Rebound, while shouting something in Chinese.

 Jennifer says, "That last guy is named Character. He's a kind of mage. My information is he needs to sketch out Chinese characters before his spells work. Grabbing him should be effective."

Rebound says, "That last guy is called Character. He's a mage and he needs to use his hands. Grabbing him should take him out of the fight."

The armed men seem to decide running away is the better part of valour. They do at least attempt to carry their fallen comrades with them.

The man not carrying someone covers the retreat with his weapon.

Jennifer hopes nobody is watching as she reaches into her jacket for an item she rarely uses these days. The hissing lash of an energy whip reaches out to grab up the unconscious chef and move him out of the kitchen and unstable restaurant through the hole in the wall. That leaves only her in there. Given another few seconds she'll be leaving.

Rebound says, "Imaginary Girl, I'm gonna try to grab Character. Can you handle the big guy?"

The strong man easily breaks free of Rebound's grasp.

Imaginary Girl replies, "I'll get him... someone take over on Bubbles, here!"

Rocket attempt to fire on the man covering the escape, while he fires back.

 Rebound says, "How is the rescue going? We mind need a hand out here."

But Rocket is too quick, and sends a third man into the wall!

Rebound stretches his arm and tries to grab Character.

 Jennifer says, "If the ceiling doesn't cave in on me I'll be there in a couple of seconds."

The pile of snow suddenly throws itself onto the flames, with great hissing.

Rebound bounds over towards Character. He skids a little on a patch of wet pavement. When he reaches to grab the mage, he misses.

Imaginary Girl tries to grab hold of the big, marble-like ball of force field... but it just slips out of her grasp.

Character seems a bit alarmed by Rebound leaping so close to him, and quickly sketches a different character in the air.

A gust of magical fire shoots toward Rebound.

"Arrgh!" Rebound nearly collapses from the blast of magical fire.

Rocket shoots the 4th man, while Bubble traps the 5th, with the man he's carrying in a bubble.

Brawn runs forward and digs his feet hard into the road surface, throwing up asphalt and dirt onto the fire, further smothering it.

The fire is dying down, but the celiing groans heavily.

Jennifer sticks her head outside the rear of the restaurant. She knows what's been happening as Jessica is watching. "Hey. I have this weird idea. Why don't you all stop fighting and help each to save the building? Strong-guy, you understand English? Any of you? The ceiling going to cave in any moment. I could use a hand stopping it." she says while getting out her staff and jamming it up against the sagging-most part of the ceiling to support it.

Snowman - or maybe Waterman, really - continues his efforts at putting out the blaze. Rocket seems unwilling or unable to help, and points his rocket at the englobed man, as if daring him to try to escape.

Imaginary Girl goes to help shore up the ceiling. Character, from his reaction, does speak English. He makes another gestures and it begins to rain on the restaurant.

The last man with a gun doesn't seem to want ot shoot his way out of the bubble.

Brawn too goes to lend a hand holding up the building - between everyone there's no problem.

Rebound takes a moment to lean against the side of the alleyway to regain his senses.

 Rebound says, "Did I just attack the guys in the white hats again?"

Jennifer let's the two bricks, Imaginary Girl and Brawn, take over the task on holding the building up. She goes out the front of the restaurant looking for someone she thinks might be there, Smiling Johnny.

Bubble and Rocket look on warily, clearly mistrustful of the truth.

<SG> Jennifer says, "I think the metas Tim Lee brought in are wearing many different colored hats. Some were known as heroes. Others like Bane are killers. I guess we have to decide of a case by case basis. Talk to them. Let's take this chance to get to know some of them."

<SG> Rebound says, "Right. The fire comes first through."

Rebound runs out to the street and does his best impersonation of a firehose.

Getting the fire out doesn't take too long, especially with Rebound adding a third source of water. Propping up the remaining building so the strong people have freedom of movement again is another task.

Jennifer doesn't spot Smiling Johnny. She does spot someone who will do as well for her purpose. Crossing over to him she delivers an ultimatum. "Tell Pride this. No burning down buildings. If Tim Lee and he want to fight it out then find a vacent lot and get to it. But if anything like this happens again I'll tears down both your houses and salt the ground. Make sure he gets the message."

Lightray looks over at Character. "Can you create or grow bamboo to help support the building, Character? I understand it is quite strong."

The man makes little reply, but it's clear the message will be delivered.

Character regards Lightray with a somewhat supercilious air and conjures some stone pillars to hold up the building.

Jennifer returns to the restaurant. "I wonder if the teapot survived?" she mutters to herself, brushing ash and soot off her singed clothing. "The smoke has irritated my throat."

The inside of the restaurant is, unfortunately, much blackened by smoke even where the fire didn't reach.

Lightray smiles slightly and bows to the Chinese mage. "Thank you, Character."

Character asks, in an Oxbridge accent, "How is it that you know me by that name?"

Lightray shrugs gently as he goes to check on the injured. "A dead man told it to me." He lets sunlight flow from his hands to heal those with wounds (ie Body damage).

Brawn stand back once the building is secure, a look of satisfaction on the unmasked part of his face.

Jennifer steps over to Brawn and offers a hand, "Nice Job. Thanks."

Once the fire is out, Rebound rejoins the other heroes. "I'm not sure what to say..." he begins, addressing Character. "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding." He winces and rubs his arms over a charred part of his costume. "Ow. Really sorry."

Brawn says, "Thank you, hello," in a rather thick accent.

Lightray walks over to Rebound. He is silent as he lets sunlight gather in his hands, then he lets it flow into Rebound.

Rebound says, "Thanks, Lightray."

There's little sign of Snowman, still, other than that the puddle of water on the coals shifts occasionally.

Lightray smiles slightly. "The least I can do." He looks over at the puddle of Snowman. "Will he be able to reconstitute himself? Or does he need help?"

"He'll be fine once he cools off. I once even saw him vaporised."

Rebound says, "So how did the fire start exactly?"

Jennifer speaks up, "Thanks for your help in containing the fire, everyone. I'm a pretty blunt person so I'll say this straight. We know you escaped from China when the old regime fell. The person you are connected to now, whom we call Tim Lee, is a criminal by our laws. If you stay with him and help him in his schemes you will also be criminals. To any of you who don't want to go down that path, contact me or any established meta in the city. We can help you get papers and find legal and gainful employment."

Character indicates the formerly armed men. "I think you should be asking them."

Jennifer nods to Character. "Pride's men. Packing ACRO weaponry. I'd heard Pride had been buying from ACRO."

Character responds to Jennifer, "There is more at stake here than your laws. I have little love for Tim Lee, who is as Chinese as a fortune cookie. But I'd have thought you would be grateful we are opposing Pride Tien Leung."

Lightray walks over to the men trapped in the bubble. "Drop your weapons, please. And I will see to your wounds." He glances over at Bubble.

The man drops his weapon, albeit reluctantly.

Jennifer smiles coolly, "If all Pride's men and all of you went into a vacant lot and fought it out I wouldn't woory one instant. But that's not what is going to happen. This," she gestures to the restaurant, "is what is going to happen. Pride was attacks Tim Lee's interests. Tim Lee will attack Prides interests. And a lot of innocent people are going to get caught in the middle."

Lightray smiles at Bubbles. "Can you release them? I have to touch him to heal."

Jennifer shrugs, "The only thing worse than a evil criminal mastermind... is two evil criminal masterminds in the same territory."

"In war, there are losses. It is a truth, though a sad truth. And make no mistake, this is a war, not some petty squabble between crime bosses. It is not for Tim Lee's interests that we are fighting,"

Bubble appears not to understand the question.

Jennifer says, "Then enlighten me, Character. Because from where I'm standing you are currently just as much a threat to this city as Pride is and this is my city. It's where I live. This is my homeland."

Rebound says, "I understand that you're coming fresh from a civil war, but that 'losses are acceptible' attitude isn't going to fly here."

Character looks from Jennifer to Rebound. "You fight for you homeland. I fight for mine. If that isn't enough for you, there is little more to be said. Indeed, I've said too much already."

Brawn appears to be trying to follow the conversation, with little success.

Lightray looks back at where the others are talking. "Excuse me, but can someone ask this young lady to lower her 'bubble'?"

Character translates and bubble breaks the bubble by forming a smaller one across it.

Lightray nods. "Thank you." He then turns to Bubble. "Thank you, my dear." He then begins to pool sunlight in his hands in a familiar manner. As he lets it flow into the injured gunman, he murmurs to them, "Please try to not make this a useless gesture. Find another path."

Character says to Lightray, "You do not intend to let the arsonists go?"

Rebound says, "Look, we both want the same thing. I'd prefer that we could work together rather than fighting one another."

Sirens approach.

Lightray shakes his head. "And how would that be just, Character? The police are already arriving." He smiles slightly. "I was offering advice, not freedom."

"We have no desire to fight, either. You are not our enemies."

Brawn has an idea how to communicate one thing, anyway - he goes about shaking the hand of anyone involved in putting out the fire.

A frost appears over the ashes of the fire, then snow, which collects itself into a sort of snowman, and then finally becomes human.

Rebound offers a handshake to Brawn and an uneasy smile.

Brawn's smile appears broad and genuine.

Lightray looks at the assembled Chinese metas. "No, you are not our enemies. And I am certain you believe yourselves to be in the right. So long as you do not harm innocents in your war with Pride, I will stand aside for you." He then adds after a beat. "But I will not if one innocent is harmed. 'Unfortunate casualties' or no, I will hunt you down and deliver you to justice." Through all of this his tone is calm and straightforward. "Just so we understand."

Rebound nods to Lightray. "Well said."

Character says, "We understand each other. I, for one, have no desire for harming innocents. But - you police are here, and may be less understanding. We go now."

And at that they vanish into the fog Character summons up with a gesture.

Lightray watches them fade away. He shakes his head. "This will end badly I fear." He looks over at the gunmen. "Shall we go get you turned in?" He is cheerful as he speaks.