Justice Avengers: Dawn over New York

"You can help by staying out of the way! " Access snapped, uncharacteristically angry. The truth was that he both feared, and hated, The Weeper with every fiber of his being; the others probably did not understand that. This wasn't another costumed crook, it was a murderous madman with delusions of grandeur. As an Agent of Balance - a fact Axel hated to be reminded of- he was all too aware of these facts, as well as that most of them were no match for that monster. No, they needed someone else.

"I'm going to go get Doctor Fate. Stay here!" he told the others. And then POP! he was gone.

POP! and he reappeared in front of Fate's Tower, in Salem. Again showing a different attitude than before, he went up to it and started banging on a the wall. "FATE! Come out! You're needed!!"

edited 17th Jan '17 12:16:23 PM by Sijo

Cannonball gave a quick nod to the bioship, and a hatch opened up from beneath. A bit of clever angling, and the three mutants barrelled inside just before the entryway slid shut once more.

"Whew! What a rush," said Cannonball, picking himself up from the ground. "Paige, you've met Darwin, now ah'd like you t'meet Miss Martian. She's a martian. Like, an act'chl martian." Sam had often been seen with his nose in a Robert A. Heinlen novel, so it was little surprise why he was grinning like an idiot whose sci-fi dreams had all come true.

"Good to see you again, M'Gann," said Karma, dusting herself off. "I'm afraid there's no time for talk, though. We need to get to Little Saigon, as fast as you can."

"Little Saigon, right! I'll take you right there, Little Saigon. Right to...right to Lil' Saigon...Lil' Old-"

"Intersection of Bowery and Grand Street."

"Right! Thank you."

A golden light flickered to life in front of Access, and took the shape of a translucent Kent V Nelson. "Good evening, visitor. If you are seeing this message, then you have come in search of Doctor Fate, who is presently engaged with supernatural threats, matters of cosmic importance, or major infractions of human law. Please state your name and message, and the Tower will relay the message to the Lord of Order in question, who will respond at his earliest convenience. You may begin your message now."

"I still don't see why I am the focus of this little discussion," said Osborn. "Why are we not devoting more discussion to our 'White Bishop', and his last night's little..."

"Balls-up."

"Thank you, Wyngarde, I was going to say debacle."

"And your creativity shows for it."

Before Osborn could retort, one of the screens spoke up, with a voice like finest oil. "My dear Osborn, trust me when I say that I have been read the riot act a dozen times over since I regained consciousness. I, in turn, have made abundantly clear to my colleague the depths of his failure. Believe me when I say the performance at the ball will not be repeated, and the next armed forces my business provides will prove far more effective."

"So that's that, then? A stern lecture and a slap on the wrist?"

"I'd hardly call hospitalisation a slap on the wrist, Osborn."

"Except that thanks to your resources, you'll be back on your feet in record time."

"Figuratively and literally," said Shaw. "The fact of the matter is, Osborn...last night's fiasco aside, your counterpart has consistently brought home the bacon."

The woman counted off on her fingers. "Connections, resources, recruitment, propaganda..."

"And let's not overlook his booming business," added Shaw. "It seems only yesterday that Stark Industries was entirely eclipsed as the most successful research and development company in the western world."

"Only because of Stark's softening heart, AND that little leg-up-"

"A leg-up that he put in place months in advance. I'd say that bit of forethought has paid dividends, wouldn't you?"

Osborn contained himself, flexing his fingers to relieve the tension. "I can provide our enterprise just as much, if not more."

"You've failed to provide much of anything since the Darkforce incident so long ago," said the woman, her tone growing colder and sterner.

"All that will be in the past soon. Project Everyman will turn everything around overnight, you'll see."

The three exchanged skeptical looks. Shaw scrunched up his mouth and shook his head. "...no. No, I don't believe we will see."

"Excuse me?"

"Given the current rate of progress, it's highly doubtful you'll scrape the resources together in good time, and you've wasted quite enough of our time already, haven't you now?"

"The final outcome will reflect the time put into it, if we could only discuss th-"

"We've discussed this matter at great length already." Shaw looked to the screens. "I believe the rest of the Circle is in agreement, are we not?"

"We are."

"We are."

"We are."

"We are."

"We are."

"Well, there you go then," said Shaw with a smile. "In which case, I may proceed. Norman Osborn, on behalf of the Inner Circle, you are hereby excluded-"

"Oh, spare me the preamble." Osborn straightened his jacket and puffed his chest with pride. "I can find my way to the door," he said, getting up to go.

"On behalf of the Inner Circle," reiterated Shaw, "...You are hereby excluded from all matters pertaining to the Hellfire Club, both within the Inner Circle and without. Any assets shared with our organisation shall be frozen, your privileges revoked, and you are to be excluded from any designated meeting area and formal gathering of our society. Effective immediately, you are no longer considered to be a member of the Hellfire Club. That will be all, dismissed."

From the stillness that followed, you would think the whole room had been turned to arctic ice. Osborn stared into space, and from his stunned expression, you would think he'd been shivved by surprise. He turned his uncomprehending gaze over to his former colleagues. "...what?..."

"You're a liability, Osborn." Shaw shared the same smirk as his fellows. "An embarrassment to the club entirely. If we merely demoted you, the Outer Circle would want nothing to do with you, and as of right now, neither do we. Dismissed."

Osborn had a half-smile of his own at the moment, but from the tone of his voice he seemed more on the verge of tears. "But you can't do this to me..." He drew himself up, addressing the whole group. "...all I've done to get here...I'd-I've given so much to all of you... YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SACRIFICED?!"

edited 17th Jan '17 12:41:50 PM by LizardOfAus

Tower of Fate

Access blinked.

Fate had a- magical answering machine?? Man, that was lame in "Brave" and it was lame here.

"Message? You want a message? OK, I got a message for you. THE WEEPER is back! He was supposedly gone forever, but somehow he's back! And while you're out gallivanting, he's killing, torturing and driving people mad in his attempts to bring them 'illumination'. So get your shiny ass up to doing something about it soon, or I swear I'll teleport this entire tower into the SUN! "

POP.

Yes, the young hero called Access was not having a very good day.

edited 17th Jan '17 1:20:54 PM by Sijo

Nightcrawler was a bit surprised at having been turned down so brutally. He furrowed his eyebrows. "What is this Weeper?"

Rogue, Shop

"Insane asshole with mind manipulatin' magic," Rogue clarified to Nightcrawler. "He's a very serious threat."

Mary Marvel—Shop-

Mary simply looked at Acess with her eyes wide open and her pupils small. She then looked down at the floor disappointed. She tried to open her mouth and say something but she wasn't able to.

Seeing a hero she liked vent out like that to night crawler was something she didn't expect at all

edited 17th Jan '17 8:39:29 PM by FallenLegend

Nightcrawler took in what Rogue had said. "Oh my.....Well, I would be happy to help if he ever tries to attack you." He told her.

He noticed that something was wrong with Mary Marvel. "Young lady, are you alright?"

Shop

POP.

Access reappeared, looking rather angry.

"Fate was NOT home!" he spat out. "He left behind a message, can you believe it? What are we gonna do now!?"

Then he noticed the way the others were staring at him.

"...? Is something wrong?"

He suddenly realized the way he had been acting.

"....Umm... sorry about the outburst... but, its The Weeper, dammit! Do you remember the hell he put us through the last time!? We need to be better prepared now! But how, how..."

-*snaps fingers* "Raven! She's a half-demon sorceress or something, no? Maybe she can help us? Anyone know where she is?"

edited 18th Jan '17 5:36:12 AM by Sijo

Wait, was he......? Truly......?

By Gideon's Sweet Aunt, he was! Rocket was actually witnessing, with his very eyes, Norman Osborne actually getting sacked from the Hellfire Club! The bounty hunter was using all of his energy not to burst out laughing and blowing his cover. He also had confirmation that, yes, Lex Luthor was a member of the inner circle as well.

Rocket decided to stay hidden and see this play out, both to get more information, and to see Osborne further humiliate himself. The raccoon did plan on bolting straight out of the room if he got discovered, though......

Shaw hardly even blinked at Osborn's outburst. "...I've dismissed you twice in one minute, Osborn. I'd rather I didn't do so again."

Osborn's eyes darted around the room, fuming with impotent rage. That rage soon found a focus with Luthor's screen, and he pointed a shaking finger at the screen. "This isn't over. It isn't, you understand?"

"I'm very sorry it had to come to this, Norman."

"Bullshit, you've wanted this from day one and everyone knows it."

"Security?"

"I'll fix you," Osborn muttered as the two guards entered the room. He didn't need much pushing and shoving, but he kept his gaze squarely on the screen the whole walk out. "I'll fix you for this, I swear it."

"Good luck with your future endeavours, Norman, you'll be sorely missed!" called Luthor as Osborn was marched out of earshot. The door was left open, and slowly started to swing shut. ''"Poor old Osborn, I did tell you he was quite under-qualified."

Wyngarde gave Luthor's screen a pointed glare. "You're not much more qualified yourself, you know. Oh, for the days when the Inner Circle was mutant majority..."

"Times change, Wyngarde," said Shaw. "In today's world, we must always keep our minds open when sorting the wheat from the chaff. Osborn was chaff, and had to be disposed of sooner or later..." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "...even if he did have the occasional valid point... Emma, Wyngarde, would you kindly give the room a quick sweep? See if there's any extra mental activity in the room..."

When security was brought in to escort Osborn away, Rocket knew at this point it was time to go. At least he knew who some of the members were. Using his rocket skates, he quickly zoomed and ran out the room, but as he did he picked up on Shaw mentioning the other two members in the room, Emma and Wyngarde, to sweep the room, and the latter mentioning about mutant majority.....

From there, Rocket made his way back to the chimney, going from furniture to furniture, and then finally making his way up and out of the building.

The Weeper?

"What the hell kind of name is The Weeper?" Spider-Man asked, irritated in his own right at having no idea what the hell was going on. "What, does he need someone to tell him a good joke? Or maybe just a good punch in the face? I can do either."

SHIELD HQ

"Have Ms. Sky meet Mr. Spector and myself in the hangar bay." Coulson explained to Hill calmly before picking up his cell phone and dialing Moon Knight. "Mr. Spector. Meet me in the Hangar. Tell Booster he has to stay here. This mission requires a certain amount of subtlety and his stealth suit glows."

The Little Shop That Was Still There

Access wondered for a second what was the matter with Spider-Man before deciding he didn't care.

"Seriously? Nobody knows where Raven is?" he asked again. "Bah, let me see if I can find her."

He concentrated, trying to invoke the sensation he felt whenever something alien was nearby. But the only presence he felt was The Weeper's, as if he were taunting him.

"Arrgh! Nothing!" he angrily spat. "I'm not sure if Weeper is blocking me or if she's not within range."

He had to try to something else, but what? Who could know where the sorceress could be?

"Hey, wait a minute! Weren't Raven and Miss Martian good friends? Maybe she knows!" he stated. Again he focused, and this time detected the alien heroine's presence, somewhere near New York.

"Got her! I'm going to ask her now!" And with that, POP.

If she had been told what was going to happen today, Ms. Guthrie would have expected her head to be spinning at all of this. An actual Martian. A Martian. A ladyperson from Mars. From another planet. I mean, Superman's from another planet, but you forget it when you see him. She's....green. Now Paige Augusta Guthrie was in a spaceship. And yet she was oddly calm. Maybe she was exhausted.

Sam was grinning like a fool, and she couldn't blame him. This was so cool. The creeping unease at actually being maybe possibly a superhero had faded. Hey, she'd always been good at team sports!

edited 29th Jan '17 11:13:51 AM by Booky

Spaceship

Darwin raised a welcoming hand to the visiting peers aboard the, uh... 'Actually, what is this ship called? Bio-Ship is not a name, it's a classification.'

"Hey guys, welcome to the M.B.S. Beagle. Yeah, it's called the Beagle, because I'm-"

Suddenly, Access.

"-JESUS CHRIST!"

POP.

Access appeared inside the Bio-Ship.

"JESUS CHRIST!"

"Hello Darwin" the young hero greeted the mutant. "Have you seen- ah Mars Bar!" he addressed Miss Martian. He noticed there were others inside the ship, but paid them no attention. "Do you know where Raven is? We need her help in New York, right now. Its The Weeper. He's back."

"Debatable, grey stuff." said Cannonball.

Ms Martian glanced over. "Oh, hey Access. What's-"

If there were ever four words to make Megan's hair stand on end, those were the ones. She glanced back at Access, her skin a slightly paler shade of green. "I...I think she might still be at her room in Stark Manor, but I can't be sure. Ever since Nazi Germany, she's been quieter than ever, just walling herself from everybody...well, not from everybody." A tinge of contempt slipped into her melancholy tone. "The few times I see her, it's between visits from this...weird pale boy. Dark Heart or something. She's been hanging out with him more and more..."

"Access," Karma interrupted. "Do you know where the Weeper is? Where did you see the last sign of him?"

Cannonball stared at Karma, as a horrible thought darted into his mind. "You don't think..."

Rocket bolted out of the door, and into the warm sunlight of the glade. The clouds were starting to part, light streaming through the trees as they swayed pleasantly in the trees. The grass had a cool dew upon it, with the sound of buzzing crickets and birdsong echoing from far away. It was almost enough to make Rocket overlook the fact that he wasn't wearing any clothes.

But the tranquility of the forest couldn't last. There came the ominous crunch of twigs and leaves underfoot, and a shadow loomed over the little helpless Racoon. Emma and Wyngarde stood side by side, Emma wearing a camouflage-print miniskirt and cap over a bright orange corset, with a hunting rifle in her hands, while Wyngarde was clad in a flannel shirt with a ruff, and a lumberjack cap on top.

"Well well," said Emma, "Looks like we have a little vermin problem after all."

"We'll have to dispose of him, or at least dispose of his memories."

"Too true. But shall we do it the easy way, do you think...or the fun way?"

Wyngarde smirked. "One quick shot between the eyes ought to do it." Emma loaded her rifle, and lined up her shot.

[As for SHIELD, well, with the time we've got left, it might be better to have them head for Genosha. For now, let us say that Moon Knight and Quake made their introductions, and the three started hashing out a strategy.]

edited 31st Jan '17 3:06:48 PM by LizardOfAus

Bio Ship

"Raven is at Stark's Manor?" Access repeated. "OK I'll look-"

"Access," Karma interrupted. "Do you know where the Weeper is? Where did you see the last sign of him?"

The young hero looked at the Asian girl. Who were these kids? They looked familiar. Wait, are those uniforms from Xavier's school? But he brushed the thought aside; he had more pressing matters right now.

"I haven't seen him" he answered. "I felt his presence... its something I can do. He's somewhere near... Chinatown, I think. ...Why do you ask?"

Rogue, Convenience Store

"Um... Access kinda gets all... jumpy when he's on a mission," Rogue said to the others after Access reappeared, decided to find Miss Martian, and then disappeared again. "He'll be back when he finds Raven."

edited 1st Feb '17 6:58:33 PM by GameGuruGG

"Hey, hello!" Nightcrawler said, annoyed. "I am right here everyone! I said I can help!"

Karma took a sharp breath, visibly curling up with distress. Cannonball shuffled over to her, saying, "Karma, that's still a couple blocks away from Little Saigo-"

"It was him, Sam!" she snapped. "I know it."

Cannonball sighed, and looked back to Access. "Karma's friend's dad has gone missing. We were just on the way to start looking for him."

All was far more tranquil over by Booster's place. Moon Knight had reacted pretty much as expected to his little announcement, and now all that remained was to tell the rest of the world. The man of the hour was no doubt preening and preparing himself, but he might have been a little distracted by a distant noise. Apparently, someone had left the TV on, and now he had to listen to the incessant chattering of "Grrrrreatery-eight ta have ya with us, Laura, it certainly is! We'll get back to you on that darling holovid in a moment, but for now, let's cut over to our very own Beagle and the Boyzzz!"

Floyd Benign was a man probably best described as the logical conclusion of talkshow hosts: an obnoxious, facile, opinionated, ratings-craving purveyor of mindless ballyhoo. Being an animatronic android, Floyd could work 24 hours a day, on every entertainment platform there was, to bring a constant stream of celebrity guests, obscure bands, game segments and other random bits of entertainment.

Booster was probably used to hearing the man's prattling voice. It might have taken him a moment to remember Floyd Benign shouldn't exist for another couple of centuries.

The raccoon was happily prowling through the forest, unaware of everything other than food, predators, and possibly mates. Though mostly the first two, as it was long before mating season, and right now the raccoon needed to fatten up and gather food for the upcoming winter. He had just eaten a big, juicy cricket moments ago when crossing the cleared path, he saw a pair of giants.

They stood on two legs and had the strangest looking hides. The raccoon had no idea of the sounds the giants made, but it made him afraid. Not just because of their size, but he somehow knew these being wished him harm. He was particularly afraid of the strange arms one of the giant pointed at him.........

It took all of the raccoon's strength to break out from being frozen in fear to fleeing in fear, the small critter screeching in terror as it ran away on all fours down the cleared path. If the giant pursed, they would quickly pass some kind of discarded and tattered book. Aside from reptilian creature on the front cover, it looked like some sort of instructional and/or self-help book.

Bio-Ship

Darwin looked between the arguing duo, his blank gray eyes a little bit hard to track. "Okay, guys, you're gonna have to fill me in on this because I kinda missed out on the Weeper. I was stuck at the bottom of the Hudson at the time. I think he used me as some kinda cornerstone for a nasty ritual he cooked up, but I'm unclear on the details."

Booster's Penthouse

Booster was so used to hearing the Obnoxious Automaton's Offal Oratory that he nearly called for his dad to turn the TV down. Only as soon as the thought formed in his head, Booster remembered that he was in 21st Century New York and that his father wouldn't be born for almost a thousand years. And neither should Floyd Benign. Booster turned slowly and turned to stare at the TV for a few seconds, even pulling up his visor to rub at his eyes. That was... definitely Floyd Benign.

Booster really wanted to check into that... but then it was almost Five O'Clock. The press would be waiting for him down at Battery Park. Booster snapped his fingers and a holoprojection of a dark blue suit with golden shirt, jacket buttons, and socks appeared over his costume.

"Time to meet the public," he muttered before turning off the TV and flying out the door, "Time to make history."

A split second after the door slammed shut, the television turned itself back on again. The image of Floyd Benign looked about, and craned his neck in the direction of the exit. He cleared his throat, then cleared it again, but it was no use. Boosted Gold had left the building. "...Well, no one can say I interfered," he said with a shrug, as static covered the image, leaving only an inhuman silhouette with glowing white eyes. Then, with a click, the TV was off, and the image was gone.

Meanwhile, the park was just as abuzz with activity as Booster had hoped it would be. A great throng of reporters stood waiting, with cameras all a-flashing and cries of "Booster Gold!" and "Mister Gold!" ringing out. All that waited was to step up to the podium.

BLAM! BLAM! Again and again, the two hunters fired upon their quarry. One metaphorical bullet, and Rocket would forget what he'd seen, and perhaps a little more. But the raccoon was as fast as any of his earth cousins, darting through the trees down his own track, while all about the birds and rabbits chittered and squealed in alarm as he darted between them.

Emma and Wyngarde might have felt annoyed by the creature's persistence if they weren't having so much fun. They walked steadily forwards, continuing their psychic potshots, when all of a sudden, Wyngarde's attention was snagged. "What the...?" he went, before kneeling down to pick up the strange martian book while Emma continued her assault.

edited 8th Feb '17 2:16:07 AM by LizardOfAus