Justice Avengers: Dawn over New York

Mr. Stark's vital signs are...decidely not well. JARVIS paused for a moment before continuing. Mr. Stark ordered me not to pass on messages or phone calls to him at this point. However, he never instructed me not to inform anyone else of his location. If you would like, he is currently in his suit flying over the dilapidated section of the city, searching for his kidnapped CEO, Ms. Potts. We believe the gentleman known as "Bane" responsible for Sir's own kidnapping yesterday, is responsible for her's as well, and we are currently en route to try and intercept what we believe to be his minions. I am afraid that this is the only information I am currently able to give you.

Rogue took back her cellphone and pocketed it. "Dr. Langstrom already told me about Jack being at the Institute."

"This whole plan of the Joker's does worry me..." Rogue frowned at Jaime, and sighed. "I might be safer... with my own kind, even if I don't want this war."

"I'm startin' to seriously worry," Rogue said to Jaime, looking rather... frightened? She would never show this side of her down in Mutant Town.

edited 1st Sep '12 12:31:38 PM by GameGuruGG

Jean Grey opened the door to Jack. He was not one of the people Prof. X was expecting. "Can I help you?"

The Matre Di came out swiftly as he could, but was having an argument over his shoulder about the state of the prawns as he went.

When the Matre Di gave him his attention Jack said. "Hello, I'm Jack Ryder and I have a reservation for three for noon,: then leaned forward and said in a low voice, "and you know you watch me even if you tell everyone you don't even own a TV." At his normal voice he said I came early because, um can we speak privately?"

edited 1st Sep '12 1:14:59 PM by tricksterson

They could see him now- The famous Ironman-a red gold dot on the horizon rocketing towards them as fast as his anger could carry him, weapons tensed in nervous hands as the minions crowding the area waited for the expected order to fire.

The order never came.

It seemed Bane was going to talk this one out- reason why the only thing he carried in his hand was a megaphone.

And here Mrs Potts comes your knight in shining armour.

There was growing agitaion amongst the minions as they watched Ironman home in on them.

"Sir, this guy won't stop to talk...we should try and....".

Bane looked at the man as if he had strapped himself to a Nuke.

Not this time Mr Wilson, He may not wish to speak but He will Listen.

"Ah! Mr Ryder! It is an honour to meet with you. Please, come this way, and we will talk in private if you wish." He lead Ryder to a more secretive corner of the restaurant.

Pepper blinked a bit at the sight of the armor, just standing still and staring at it as it came to a halt in the air above them, lowering just enough to be heard without having to yell.

"Release Ms. Potts and I'll be on my way. We can settle our issues another time, another place. Right now I only want her safe. Whatever issue you have with me, Bane, it doesn't involve her."

Megan thought about the question for a little bit. "I think...its amazing honestly. I come from a small mining town. You could fit everyone I knew into this building and then some. It seems like it will rarely be dull at this school. Heck, the very first thing I see when I get here is this guy jumping off the roof and sliding down to the ground on ice." She said when pointing to Bobby. Megan smiled at Mr. Mc Coy and said "I'm pretty excited. I think I'll like living here."

"Somehow, I think you'll feel right at home in no time," said McCoy with a smile, and then to Drake, "One of your stunts again, Bobby? The professor will have frank words with you about that."

"I look forward to it." Bobby turned to Pixie. "C'mon, I'll show you that last couple of rooms."

Mr Stark..

Bane's voice echoed through the megaphone.

How good of you to come here.

There was notable confusion amongst the minions- this was Tony Stark?

But do you not find it sad that I must threaten your security for you to visit the Slums?

Megan nodded her head and waved to Hank before Bobby lead them out of the classroom to continue their tour. "So, how long have you been here?" She asked the Iceman, curious to hear his opinion.

When they were alone Jack said, "I thought I should let you know ahead of time that one of the guest is...different. You normally would not let him in at all but I would consider it a personal favor if you did. That's why I reserved one of your private alcoves." Not the only reason but he didn't need to know that. As he said "personal favor" he had rtaken his hand out of his pocket which held a discreetly folded but still visible fifty dollar bill. "My other guest is Miss Wesleigh Dodds. I'm sure you've heard of her or at least her family.

Storm blinked.

"What."

"...tell Mr. Stark he's an idiot, will you? I'm not sure I can get there in time to do anything, although if you think it's necessary I can certainly try..."

She trailed off, biting her lip as she thought about how to contact her teammates.

Pepper visibly started at that, staring at the armor again, her expression going to pure shock in an instant. "Tony?"

The armor lowered a bit more, coming to the ground with a slight thunk, and he continued to speak. "So charity is still something I'm getting the hang of. What do you want me to do? Not being a selfish asshole is a new thing for me, but frankly, I think I'm doing all right for my first go at it. Let me tell you how normal people go about asking for help...they write letters, they make phone calls, they do a little bit of work for it. They don't kidnap the CE Os of multi-billion dollar companies who are actually doing a better job of sharing the blessings than the stupid slob she replaced. Now let Pepper go. This doesn't have anything to do with her."

—

I am not sure what you could do, Miss Storm. At this very moment, Mr. Stark is confronting his kidnapper from yesterday, a large gentleman apparently known as Bane. Perhaps it would be best for you to alert whatever authorities you are capable of alerting and sending them to our coordinates?

edited 1st Sep '12 1:16:09 PM by MystyGlyttyr

The teen frowned.

"I could certainly do that, but I'm not sure it will do much good. It's a hostage situation, right? I don't think Tony needs any more force on his side, otherwise "Bane" might just grab Miss Potts and run—or kill her, or something..."

"Me?" said Iceman, "I was one of the first. Heck, just about every teacher here was one of the first pupils. Professor X got us roped in to keep helping out, though a few of the later pupils got loose."

The room they were in now was very large, with leather chairs and artistic paintings on the wall. "Here, we got the Lounge room. Very...relaxing...nice colours..."

Megan was surprised to hear that Bobby was one of the first students. He didn't seem that old. She stopped next to him when they entered the Lounge and looked around, nodding her head in agreement with his statement. "Is this the last room?" She asked.

"Not quite..." He opened a door on the side of the lounge, and revealed a room only slightly smaller than the lounge, with benches and tables spread throughout, and a rectangular hole in the wall, through which could be seen stoves and hanging pans.

"Feast your eyes! The dining room. Through that hole and that door there is the kitchen. We don't let students in there, else we'd never see our food supplies again. Eating times are marked up on the side of the wall, nest to the menu, but it goes a little like this: Breakfast's 7 til 9, Lunch is half 12 til half 2, and Dinner's on 5 til 7."

edited 1st Sep '12 1:49:38 PM by LizardOfAus

The mercenary looked at the knife, completely terrified. "We don't know! It was Quinn that hired us! She hired us this morning, told us to shoot someone dressed as the Joker and any superheros nearby! I SWEAR, THAT'S ALL THAT I KNOW!"

The Joker clapped his hands. "I bet that brings the boys to the yard, doesn't it?" He rested his feet on the table, tapping his fingers on the seat. "Anyway, Mystique, we need to talk business. I bet you've heard the news of the mutant attack on Jack Ryder's studio yesterday, and let me tell you something... that was no random mutant attack. That was something orchestrated by a group of anti-mutants. Heck, their leader wasn't even a mutant!"

"How do I know that, you ask?" the Joker giggled. "It's simple. Said group asked me to do it. But I don't agree with those views, oh no. You see... I... relate to your struggle. It is similar to the struggle I went through my first years. A poor man just trying to help people being forced into the role of a villain by masked freaks with a fake sense of justice. I've been there. And I want to make sure that it won't happen again."

"That's why I'm offering you, and the ENTIRE mutant community, my anonymous help- because, quite frankly, even if you told someone like Bats that I was helping you, he would still punch me in the face and send me back to Arkham..." he sighed. "Typical masked freak attitude, thinking that they're the ones that should decide who's evil and who's not... anyway, that's not the thing I came here to talk about. Mystique, I am offering you something that no one will offer. I am offering you... a cure."

"That's right! A cure to the X-gene. You see, I have taken the good doctor Langstorm under my wing- no pun intended. Did you know that those masked freaks that the newspapers call heroes threw him in the Raft just for not looking like a human?! That's outrageous! I took him in, and I'm providing him with everything necessary to develop a cure. No longer will we have this stupid mutant vs anti mutant conflict. If you don't want to be mutant, simply drink the X cure, and you'll be able to return to your past human life. Think about it! World peace! Mutants accepted everywhere! No more being forced to live in the dumps by fat cats in black suits!"

"... but unfortunately, I can't just create the cure. I don't have a really good public image... must be my beard... so I need your help. All you need to do is keep this little partnership a secret... give me a few blood samples... and in a week or so, you and your friends will hold a cure on your hands. No joke."

edited 1st Sep '12 2:24:51 PM by Stratofarius

The voice on the other end of the phone was silent for a second before responding.

You may be correct. That being said, Mr. Stark may have need of someone after this situation is handled, one way or another. I would greatly appreciate if you could ask for someone to come and be on hand should he need the back-up against Bane, even if they remain out of sight for now. And even once Ms. Potts has been rescued, I believe Mr. Stark's previous injuries may catch up to him and cause him some difficulty with which he will not allow me to help. There was another short pause before JARVIS added an afterthought. Sir can be quite stubborn about such things.

Megan let out an impressed whistle when she saw the dining room, obviously impressed. "I bet you guys serve some pretty great food here too." She said with a grin, already feeling her stomach grumbling at her to get something to eat.

Jack Magnus shook his head. "Oh, I'm not here to be helped, miss, I'm here to help. I'm Jack Manganese Magnus, on behalf of the Duane March foundation. We're going to make the new penicillin, with your help. We are going to make the antidote for all metahuman related conditions. And all we need is some blood."

Mystique was silent for a moment. "...A cure?...You'd do that?...You could make a cure?"

She cracked a smile. Then chuckled. Then she laughed warmly, leaning back on her chair as she let out such lovely laughter. Then she yanked the Joker across the table by his tie, bending him back to she could glare into his eyes.

"...There was a time...when all I wanted was to be like anyone else. I want to be accepted, to just be normal. So I hid myself away, twenty four seven, under some constructed face. The only time I could stand to let my true skin see the sun was when I was asleep, and couldn't see myself. But in the end, I had an epiphany. I was shown the truth. I knew then that I shouldn't have to hate myself, as others hated me. I was...I am better than them. I am higher evolved. I am stronger, more powerful than so many of them could ever dream of being. So now, I accept myself. I've honed my skills and powers, just so I can laugh in the face of all their scientific laws. I don't relish pretending to be 'normal', base and average. I despise it, but I keep up the pretence for convenience's sake. Just so I can walk about in daylight, I have to shut away who and what I really am. But I wait for the day when I need no longer do that. I'm waiting for the time when we 'mutants' can walk tall and proud, once we've set the natural world right, with the powerful on top and the weak below us. You come here, Joker, and tell me you can 'cure' us? Strip away what makes us great? And you expect to be PRAISED FOR THIS?! ...You make me want to retch. I don't know if you really think you can make this cure, I don't know what, if anything, you haven't lied about to me, and I really couldn't give a fuck. Don't ever come down here again, with that poison in your mouth. Because if you do...if you try to go through with whatever twisted scheme you have in your bony head...and if I find you...I will burn you, Jack Napier. I will take away all you have. I will find whatever tiny thing you hold dear, and tear it apart in front of your eyes. Don't think you can catch me, don't think for a second you can hope to stop me. I will find a way to make you and whoever is stupid enough to be standing by you suffer. And when I'm done, when you're kneeling before me, cracked and mute, I will pull your black, putrid heart from out of you, and hold it in front of your glassy eyes."

With surprising strength, she pulled him off the table and sent him crashing to the floor. Everyone in the cafe was silent, and staring at them. "Get out of my cafe."

A soft expression came over Jaimes face as he put a hand on Rogue's arm.

"I can't promise that I can stop this before it happens, but I am going to do my best."

He gently shook his head.

"If the Joker does manage to incite a war here in New York, that is probably one of the most dangerous places you can be. I imagine it's one of the first places that'll be struck. This is much less of a hot zone."

Jaime drew in a soft breath.

"Have you ... you could always stay in El Paso till all this blows over."

Iceman shrugged. "Nothing to shout about, but it's pretty delicious." They left the Dining Room. "Well, that just about covers our tour of the school, or as I like to call it, the X-Mansion. You want to leave it there, or should I go the whole hog and show you the rest of the grounds."

Jean contemplated closing the door in Jack's face, but thought better of it. "Mr Mangus, I'm curious...how many mutants do you think want to be 'cured'?"

edited 1st Sep '12 3:32:36 PM by LizardOfAus