Justice Avengers: Dawn over New York

Cannonball, however, had all but completely frozen up, one hand stuck at the side of his head. "...I, uhh..."

"Cannonball," snapped Karma, "I understand if the big brother instinct is kicking in, but try to remember your sister has solid metal under her skin. Besides that, if she was capable to cross the country on her own then she doesn't need a whole lot of protecting."

"All right, point made." He took a deep breath and pulled his hand down his face, as if donning a mask of composure. "Okay, here's the plan. I'll fly us down to Manhattan an' we'll talk to Karma's friend at her place. From there, we'll spread out, an' try 'n' retrace her dad's steps. Paige, y' might wanna make sure you got y'r phone on ya, 'n' case you run into the dad, or anyone not so friendly."

Once Paige was sure she was ready, Cannonball stood at the school gates, took the girls under each arm, advised them to hold on tight, then shot into the air on an express flight to New York City.

"Honestly, Luthor couldn't BE more transparent about his grab at New York. His stocks are already leagues above Stark industries, Osborn's just next on-"

Just then, the lights spontaneously decided to go out one by one, plunging the room into darkness and startled whispering. The guards were already made anxious at this point, but machinery spontaneously turning on in a distant room was enough to seal the deal. The bouncer for the back door went off to investigate the strange noise, and the shadows gave enough cover for a minute or two yet.

Rogue, Convenience Store

"I'm the Rogue, a fellow mutant," Rogue shook Nightcrawler's hand before pointing to Access. "This is Access, who can teleport anywhere that he has seen before."

"From the fact you are the only one we don't know, I'm guessing you, the Incredible Nightcrawler, are a fellow teleporter," Rogue made an educated guess about Nightcrawler's power. "Access can pick them up as well, apparently."

"So we have something on Godfrey?" Rogue asked Hawkeye, curious about what she might've found.

Paige was damned glad she'd thought to put on her motorcycle goggles before takeoff, as well as her heavy jacket. It was cold up here! Karma seemed to be taking it all well, so well in fact Paige wondered how often Sam had taken her flying. Maybe something else was going on between them?

The bright blur and shine of the approaching city derailed her thoughts.She had no idea what a normal "New Mutants" situation might be, but Paige found herself hoping that Karma's dad had just fallen asleep somewhere or something totally normal. Making her big mutant debut had sounded a lot more exciting when she wasn't a few thousand feet up......

edited 13th Dec '16 6:08:12 PM by Booky

Convenience Store

Nightcrawler smirked. "You got me again," he said, before teleporting behind Rouge with a bamf. "Are you a mutant?"

Plot-convenient store

Access was starting to get annoyed. What was so great about the "amazing" Nightcrawler? The guy not only looked like a devil, his 'ports were noisy and -sniff!- smelled like brimstone! Yet everyone seemed sooo charmed despite just meeting him. Hello? You have your own, trusted teleporter already, OK?

But he said nothing. He felt like anything he said, would only make him sound worse. Suddenly, he just wanted to be gone from there. But where?

Then he had an idea.

"Hey Rogue" he said, trying to not sound shy- "If the club had some plans for District X, maybe they were involved in the Brotherhood's attack on the party? I think we should go there. You have contacts there right?"

A little old Bioship was cruising through the air, with two passengers sat in awkward silence. It had been a simple little idea: go to see Doctor Fate, switch powers for a day, shenanigans ensue. So there they were, right on the doorstep of the Tower of Fate, when this weird Fate-Hologram-thing shows up and says something to the effect of "Doctor Fate is unavailable now, please leave a message after the beep." Megan tried being insistent with the thing, but her attempts to faze through the door were met with a concussive shockwave sending the two ten feet backwards. So now, ten minutes later, here they were, en route to New York once more.

"...Well..." said Megan eventually, "...I mean, it wasn't a total bust right? Got to see the tower...see its burglar alarm...and we can always check back tomorrow, right?"

Just then, something showed up on the radar. Something that looked a lot like a boy and two girls flying nearby at terrific speed.

Rocket's eyes immediately adjusted to the darkness when the room when the lights were cut out, his species natural nocturnal vision kicking in, and he ran with all his might, briefly using the rocket skates, towards the backdoor. When he reached it, he quickly opened the door, swung into the room, and gently closed the door behind.

All of this happened within the span of a single minute.

Convenience Store

"Nothing concrete," Kate said to Rogue. "Mary has a plan to expose him, though we don't have all the kinks worked out."

She glanced Access' way. "What club?"

Convenience Store

Kurt became intrigued. Club? Brotherhood? "What are you all talking about? What district?" he asked the heroes. If this had to do with helping people, he was all in.

Rogue, Convenience Store

"Yep! One touch with bare skin and I'd borrow your powers of teleportin' and probably your devilish looks as well," Rogue explained to Nightcrawler. "So look, but don't touch."

"The Hellfire Club," Rogue told Hawkeye quietly. "Our first attempt at getting to them failed, but Rocket's succeeded where we failed, and if he needs help, he or his sidekick will call us in."

"That is a great idea, Access!" Rogue turned and praised Access when he offered her another avenue to get at the Hellfire Club. "I had been planning to go to District X to find out about the club at some point, actually."

China Town

A low spread flare pinged at Access's senses of that which did not belong. It was like the sight and smell of a weeping, festering wound.

It was, of course, familiar.

Convenience Store

Kurt was now becoming even more intrigued. "Wait, what you people talking about? If it's important, I want to help in anyway I can!"

The Little Shop That Wasn't There- Oh Wait Yes It Was

Access blinked as Rogue started blurting all the facts to everyone, including the new guy. Was that safe? Before he could protest about it though she actually praised him for his idea. That stunned him even more.

Then the Devil-guy -what was his name again? Black worm or something?- actually asked to come along. Surely they would not agree, right? I mean what did they know about him? It could be a trick to infiltrate us!

He was about to voice his opinion when he was interrupted *again* this time by a sensation of a sickening presence. One he recognized.

His expression became one of shock and horror. NO! It cannot be! Not HIM! He's gone!!

"HOLD IT!!" he suddenly shouted. "I-I'm feeling something now. Oh my God, I think- its The Weeper! He's back!!!"

edited 15th Dec '16 4:27:33 AM by Sijo

Now Things Get Interesting

Spider-Man had no idea what was going on. Although, before he could ask anything, he felt a sudden buzzing in the back of his head.

' Spider-Sense is tingling, ' He thought, ' Danger! '

Store

Kurt was getting very confused now. "What? Who is the Weeper?" He asked, concerned.

Once Rocket was inside, he'd have to move just as fast to get to cover, since the door he just entered was in plain view of the room's inhabitants. There were four in total, sat in the centre of the room at a dining table. There was little light in the room, but their silhouettes appeared to be five in all, and were currently glancing around the room.

"It seems like there's some intrigue outside," said a sultry woman's voice.

"It's the inside that concerns me," a sultry man's voice replied. "Wyngarde, would you be a dear and check the door?"

"Is that it, then?" said another male tone, "Am I officially the errand boy of the circle?"

"Wyngarde..."

With much grumbling, a slim silhouette got up and went marching up to the mysteriously opening and closing door.

The rest of the room was finally furnished, every surface mahogany, with fully stacked bookshelves and well-kept curtains lining the walls. This old fashioned design only served to make the glowing white screens hanging in a circle above the table more conspicuous.

Mars-Ship

"I still don't think he's gonna go along with this idea." Darwin leaned back against his chair before something appeared on the radar.

He looked to Miss Martian. "Hey, does this thing have some kinda telepathic radio? We got company."

He mimed as if talking into headset. "Niner-niner, this is the co-pilot of of SCG 73kkllkk Beta Class 2 Mark 1 Mars Interceptor. Be advised you are sharing our air space. Please respond."

The brief moment between the door closing and this Wyngarde going for it, Rocket managed to run off straight into either big enough shadows or behind one of the larger curtains. As he adjusted his computer for maximum voice recording range to pick up the ensuing conversation, his mind was already working a mile a second in concocting various escape plans in case things went south.

In the meantime, he kept quiet, trying his hardest to try and identify the other people in the room as his eyes readjusted to the darkened room that was only illuminated by the near blinding white screens......

Megan glanced over to see Cannonball streaking through the heavens. With a smile, she put a hand to her head and said "Hey Cannonball, need a ride?"

Cannonball did a double take at the bishop emerging from the clouds, and called as loud as he could over the rushing winds, "Paige, how'd ya'll like to ride inside an honest-t'-goodness martian spaceship?"

The screens themselves revealed very little: shining white silhouettes of heads sat in front of off-white backgrounds, as vaguely cool-looking dots of light criss-crossed the image. As soon as Rocket's eyes grew fully accustomed, he got a good look at the Inner Circle. Two of the men were dressed in sophisticated regency garb, ruffs and all, while the third wore a more conventional suit, but seemed to compromise with an old fashioned longcoat. The blonde woman at the table, on the other hand, had a fashion sense that was unconservative to say the very least. She didn't seem interested to cover much beneath that fur cloak of hers, and her spotless white corset left little to the imagination. Of course, on the off chance none of that interested the non-human, her most defining feature was a constant arrogant smirk. To her left sat an equally confident blond man in navy blue, with dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail with a bow. Returning to the table was a handsome man with an all-encompassing moustache and maroon ensemble. The third man sat with his back to Rocket, but there was only one man in New York with hair that bad.

"Some damned fool is playing with the lights outside," said Wyngarde. "No doubt Kord trying to show us up again."

Osborn snorted, his otherwise stoney expression showing a hint of a sneer. "You could put a little more effort into-"

"Osborn, I really hope you're not trying to tell our White Rook what to do." The ponytailed man leaned forward, tenting his fingers. "You're in no position to give orders, you know. Not tonight."

"All I am saying is, that 'playing with the lights' could be the first sign of infiltration, perhaps even a bust from armed forces. SWAT teams, CIA, dare I say super-vigilantes, aren't we the least bit concerned about our enemies?"

"We have no enemies, Osborn." He leaned back, putting his arms behind his head. "We're beneath the notice of ever name you just mentioned, and any that could spring to your cold robotic mind of yours."

"It still wouldn't hurt to check, would it now?"

The woman's smirk grew wider. "Why, Sebastian dear, I think Norman is trying to worm his way out of this."

"I think you may be right, my dear," said Shaw, returning the smirk. "What say we get back to the topic at hand, hm?"

Osborn sighed and slumped back in his seat. All eyes in the room were fixed squarely on him.

Rocket mentally chuckled at Osborn's concerns, especially since the slimeball was both entirely correct and the raccoon himself was hiding directly behind the corrupt CEO. At least the bounty hunter managed to eyeball what many of the Inner Circle looked like, which included one Sebastian Shaw. The other he would have to look for later, in particular this Kord fellow.

For now, the procyonoid decided to continue hiding and seeing where exactly this meeting was heading.....

Paige gaped at the odd craft soaring next to them. A spaceship? You mean like an alien ship? She couldn't help but consider that having a floor below her while flying would be much more reassuring, though it might hurt Sam's feelings to say so. "Sure, why not? Then we wouldn't have to shout to each other!" she shouted back. How often had Sam gone flying around in a real alien ship and never told her?

edited 16th Jan '17 5:33:42 PM by Booky

China Store

Yep, that sure was the Weeper alright.

Or just something touch by his particular brand of magic.

Or just something akin to that, like whatever it is he drew from the outside.

It was within a couple blocks around... that direction. Yes, that was definitely something Access could pinpoint at this point, and if he went in closer he'd be able to pin down the source more exactly.

Nightcrawler turned to the heroes with him. "What is going on right now? What is with the other teleporter?"

"My name is Access" the young hero snorted. "And The Weeper is a crazy, very evil sorcerer we beat- or at least thought we beat- a while back. Trust me this guy is real bad news, we need to find him and stop him ASAP!" He then focused his special sense again. "I got him! Or, I think I got him, I don't trust anything regarding him, remember the way he messed with our minds" he explained to his comrades. " We should go get Doctor Fate or some other powerful help before we tackle him again."

edited 17th Jan '17 12:03:54 PM by Sijo

Nightcrawler nodded. "Okay.....how can I help?" He had just gotten here, and now he was helping superheroes against a dangerous foe? How exciting!