2013-01-08 Winter Con

Winter Con is in full effect here at the Javits Center along the Hudson River in Midtown Manhatten. The huge convention hall is packed with people, and they are all here to celebrate entertainment from the Land of the Rising Sun. People dressed in outfits of anime and computer games are every where. Game developers and momento distributers try to sell and promote their wares. Huge displays from all the major companies have been set up in the big convention hall. Food vendors are centered in courts, but there are also several hot dog and candy carts along the edge of the main hall too.

Johnny Storm has proven to be quite popular with the anime crowd. He is one of the guests today. He is located near one of the smaller racing car displays. His own street racer is behind him done in a garish red with flame streaks along the side. He is grinning ear to ear as he shakes hands and poses for pictures.

Towering over the crowd is a massive robot samuri warrior. He is remincent of the anime robots of the 1980s. It is probably a good thirty feet tall so that no matter where you are on the floor, you can see it. Its face is metallic and smooth even as it seems to wear samuri armor and has a large sword hung at its side. One hand rests on the hilt of the sword. The other moves up and down appearing to wave at the crowd or beckon others closer.

Men on hoverboards shooting blots of plasma. Now this is what it's all about, thinks Noh-varr as he hurtles earthward backwards, shooting up at his attackers. Behind them the flaming Secret Empire jet with the fused controls and the armed neutron bomb arcs out towards a date with the Atlantic Ocean at several times the speed of sound. VORP. There's the last of the hovermen. Now if there were only something to break his fall... like the storage/loading area of the Javitz Center. Noh tears through the roof and begins clawing at any structure he can to slow himself down. Walls, girders behind walls, floors (ow), candy machines. After passing through two floors he bounces to a stop. After a few moments, he pushes roofing and a desk off of him and staggers to his feet. "Ngah." He staggers out and somehow makes his way into the Con via a utility tunnel. "Mrgh?"

Owen didn't expect coming here to go so well. Especially not when he was caught with his hood down. But people just assumed he was in costume so Owen is enjoying something usually reserved for Halloween...walking around with his hood down and no DarkForce swirling about. Sure, he's fuzzy, fanged, and has glowing eyes but all he's got to do is smile and nod when someone asks him iff he's a character from whatever show or game they mention. Enjoying a hot dog, he's not even draining any lifeforce from people today.

Rogue really has no clue why she's here outside of perhaps a change of scenery, not really being one of the fans of the genre. She has no clue who or what the cosplayers are supposed to be be and the giant robot on display has her more befuddled than awed. But even then... heck, yes she is enjoying herself despite being utterly, one hundred percent clueless. A few bags are in hand, a sign of her having done a bit of shopping to try and educate herself on this thing called 'manga' (imagine her susprise when she later discovers it is all written in Japanese), and she has a shirt with one of the more popular guy characters slung over her shoulder, a recent purchase at a booth she is just departing from.

Her wanderings put her past Johnny's display and she pauses, looking at him and then to the cars... and then back at him. Hey, who can blame her. He's cute!

Nate stumbled into the convention by chance. He probably should be doing more important things with his time, but... this place is too interesting, in a crazy way. So the dimensionally displaced mutant has been watching the games, talking to people (and asking numerous dumb questions) and having fun, and only now he is considering leaving the place. But still doing a last round to see if something catches his attention. And sure, there is a battered Noh-varr. "Funny meeting you here," he greets, checking for injuries. "I tried to find you the other day, but I had to answer some questions to the SHIELD people and it took too long. Are you in immediate danger? Anyone after you?"

EARLIER

"Evildoer!" Xavin shouts as he steps out of a crowd of con-goers to level an imperious finger at a man dressed as the Shocker and posing for a photo with a 'helpless', uncostumed woman, "Unhand her!" Rather than await compliance, he darts forward and lunges, hands out to capture the quilted costume.

He wasn't really sure what to make of that bookstore gift card that appeared in his alley out of the blue over the holidays, but the time spent reading about the exploits of Earth's superheroes while eating the pastries it afforded him was, to say the least, influential.

After a couple seconds of rolling around on the ground with the costumed man, security guards swarm the scene to haul him away by his legs and arms; all the while, he protests, "Let me--I was /rescuing/--I am a /warrior/, I deserve /respect/--!" while trying to writhe free of their grip.

NOW

After about half an hour in the con's makeshift security area, Xavin got fed up with waiting around, and that was the last any of the guards saw of the crazy man who attacked a cosplayer.

A few minutes of walking the floor - and trying not to bump into anyone while wandering about invisibly - later the alien nears Johnny's display, and breaks off from wandering about to trying to stake out a place in the middle of the crowd.

"Hm," Xavin murmurs as she fades into view. "Aren't you concerned," she continues, raising both her hand and her voice to try and draw the hero/celebrity's attention, "that driving around in such a bright, colourful car will only attract undue attention from your enemies? /I/ certainly would be." Her other hand is briskly combed through her long, brown hair before falling back to her side.

Sue Storm really, REALLY did not want to come to this convention thing. She's never been a fan of this anime stuff, and some of the costumes people around her are wearing are inappropriate bordering on flat out creepy. But, she promised Johnny she'd meet him here, and she keeps her promises. Dressed in her most everday outfit possible to avoid attracting attention, she stops a little ways out from where her brother is greeting people, waiting for a moment let him know she's there. While waiting, she looks up at the giant robot statue thing, idly wondering if it's one of those Transformer things.

Johnny grins as he lets a pretty girl in a revealing outfit pose against the front of the car as he stands next to her with an arm around her and his other extended so his hand can become fire. He notices the lady walking by with the streak in her hair, and gives her a wink as he catches her eye. After the picture, he hears Xavin's question and smiles in her direction. "Sort of the point. I'm not really one for subtle. I leave that to the others." Speaking of, he catches sight of his sister in the crowd and gives her a wave.%R Johnny is dressed in his Fantastic Four top but with a leather biker jacket over it albeit open in front. The shoulder of his jacket has the FF logo on it. He also has on jeans so he is fairly casual, but still fairly anything but subtle.

The samuri robot continues to wave above the crowd, but for those that might feel static energy in the air there is a sudden build up around the robot. A faint electrical current travels up the three story figure. The glowing eyes in the smooth face go from a soft blue to a warning red. Slowly, the head begins to turn. The waving hand goes down and the hand on the hilt begins to draw the sword.

Noh-varr's uniform is torn, revealing Kirby-circuitry. Thanks that last plasma bolt he took, his hair is shocked up and out like an artist's paintbrush. He wanders about as if in a dream, staring at the people in costumes. Approaching the Johnny Blaze booth, he runs into Nate. Looking up Noh blinks and rubs his temples. "Srrry. What?" Noh-varr shakes his head violently and finally there seems to be some clarity."Why are we in a space station? Why do I keep getting thumbs up? And why is there a combat robot drawing its weapon in the middle of a crowd. Does anyone else see a problem with this?"

Finishing off his hot dog, Owen's on his way towards Johnny's little set up. He wants to see that car he heard people talking excitedly about. He doesn't get enough chances to indulge his mechanical side. He's closer to the giant robot though, eyes glancing up at the waving. He lets out a little whistle and makes a mental note to come back...and then there's static electricity. "Gah," he mutters, fur and hair standing on end. Sure, the fur is really short but it's still noticable when he goes all...poof. "The hell..." he pauses, seeing the sword start to draw. "Oh ya have got tah be kiddin' me."

Wait. Did she just get winked at? Really? That gives Rogue enough reason to linger a bit. Johnny is watched while he interacts with everyone, her eyes held to his face as much as possible although it's probably safe to guess that her gaze does filter down his form some. "Ah do declare," comes a drawled, whisper, self-directed exclaimation. "Ain't he soft on the eyes?" She's overheard by one of her fellow gawkers who elbows her and grins.

"This is some kind of... party, mixed with a game marketplace," explains Nate, sounding as if he is not entirely sure of it. "Eh? Don't know, this is not my homeworld either, amusing place at least. As for the robot. Must be part of the games, at least I hope it is." He squint his eyes, "but in the case it is not, perhaps we should move out of its immediate reach, say about ten, twelve yards left and back." He is already sliding away, and dragging Noh-Varr with him. Old habits. And that metal thing is as large as a Sentinel.

"It just doesn't seem particularly prudent," Xavin muses. Her hand is loosely curled against her chest rather than all the way at her side--just in case someone tries to take the floor from her. "I admire the confidence of it, but--"

Xavin doesn't hear /all/ of Noh-varr's barrage of questions, but she does catch something about a robot, prompting her to squint bemusedly at the ragged Kree. "Look," she bites off, sticking her hand all the way back up. "/I/ have the floor, now, and /I/--"

Wait--

Brown eyes quickly flick towards the electrified machine as it reaches for its blade, and then they return to Noh.

"--ah." Beat. "Yes." Another beat, and then a smile begins to spread across the Skrull's lips. /Finally/--an evil robot!

"Please don't die," she continues as flames rush from the ends of her hair all the way up to the roots and the right side of her body is similarly ignited, When the fire reaches her feet, she actually takes off to streak above the con floor, intent on doing a few broad laps around the thing to see if it's actually hostile.

Sue Storm can't help but shake her head in faint amusement when she hears a southern accent comment on Johnny, and then her attention is drawn toward the giant robot along with everyone else's. "Uh, is it supposed to be doing that?" She looks around at all of the milling people, and is getting a very bad feeling about this. "Johnny?"

The crowd oooo's as Xavin bursts into flame, or at least half of her. It is amazing what folks can do with special effects these days and they think they are in the middle of an impromptu show or display. Cameras track the flying Xavin as she circles. Flashes go off although not with the audible pop of once upon a time, but there is still a chorus of clicks.

The samuri continues to draw the sword. The blade is long and about twelve feet long and there is a crumble of plaster begining to fall as the tip of the sword scratches across the ceiling. Although slow moving at first, the sword moves back and forth, slowly picking up speed before the robot suddenly strikes towards its side. The sword rips through the massive Nintendo display taking off Mario's head with a crackle of electrcity. The large head topples towards the floor and people still taking pictures.

Johnny gives Sue a quizzical look. "Is what supposed to do what?" Then he hears the robot moving and turns his head. "Oh boy," he says although there is a smile in his voice as he says it. "Stand back, folks," he gestures towards those around him and takes a step away from the car. No need to mess up that paint job of course. "FLAME ON!" he yells and is quickly engulfed in flame, aflight, and heading towards the robot.

Noh-varr allows himself to be pulled away, unsure of exactly what is going on. After they slow he steps away from Nate. "It's too crowded in here. There are too few exits. These strange people will be killed. We should help." He turns and begins running towards the robot, threading between otaku, leaping atop a table, a wall, a red dinosaur--at which point his guns are in hand--and flinging himself at the head of the samuraibot, plasma a-blazing: VORP VORP VORP.

Owen's eyes go wide as that sword is drawn and brought down. There's no battle cry from him when danger springs up. He sees that head coming rolling, grabs as many people as he can and teleports them away from impending Mario-related doom. This of course would be quite noticable given the cloud of inky black darkness that springs up and fades away as Owen teleports but at least the people are safe when he drops them closer to Johnny's display. Cold and probably freaked out but safe. And it's just in time for Owen to watch the Human Torch go flying off. "What on Earth iss going on here..."

Nate winces as the sword hits the place he was thirty seconds ago. Not a game after all! But who could want to attack a place like this? Oh well, he will figure out later. The more immediate problem is dealing with a giant robot in a place full of civilians. Since Noh-varr goes for the head, he instead shots a powerful telekinetic blast to the wrist of the sword-arm, a stream of golden light surging from his left eye.

Rogue finally turns aorund and then rushes forward once she realizes what's going, literally pushing people out of the way if it looks like they might be in the line of danger, managing to get out an 'excuse me' or 'sorry 'bout that' on occasion. Once she has people out of the way she takes to the air, hands curled into fists as she prepares to battle. "This better not be some kinda PR stunt, otherwise Ah'm going to have to find out who is in charge of this thing and kick their cans."

After a few loops around the robot's head, arm, and even sword, Xavin lingers just above the thing's helmet for a few ticks to quizzically study the flaming Torch blazing towards them while the flickering remnants of her flight gradually fade from the air. Eventually, she shakes her head and turns her attention back to the machine; just as her hand stretches towards its face and flames begin to leap from her fingers, however--

VORP!

--a bolt of plasma misses her by a couple of feet; the danger is still sufficient to send the surprised Skrull spinning erratically away from the beam for a second as she tries to balance not dying with not crashing somewhere and setting the building on fire. When she finally recovers, it's with a little mid-air twirl that leaves her hovering somewhere around the machine's belly; scowling, she hurls a ball of fire down towards one of the thing's knees, then turns her head towards Johnny to holler, "We are going to want to cripple it as quickly as possible--make sure that the civilians are out of the way!"

Sue Storm gasps and looks suitably horrified when the giant robot beheads another display statue, but someone shoving her aside keeps her from catching the head in a force field before it can crush those... oh. There's a teleporter here. That's useful. And it's time for her to stop being just another bystander. Floating up above most everyone's heads but staying visible, she calls out as loudly and clearly as she can, "Please, if everyone could CALMLY start toward the exits." She's prepared to toss force fields as needed to keep people moving and away from what looks like is about to be a minor fiasco.

Maybe this isn't a demonstration? Could this be real? Cameras still go off, but there is that murmer of panic starting to go through the crowd as other heroes appear and move through them. Those beneath the falling Mario head cry out in terror a split second before they are teleported away. They looked stunned, shocked, and a tad chilly as they just huddle, shaking over at Johnny's display after Owen's rescue. "Thank you," comes out weakly from them.

The plama bolts strike the head of the Samuri. THe head rocks back slightly, but it would appear it is made of more than the simple flimsy materials of a Con Display. At least better than poor Mario. The red eyes search for the person that fired and twin lasers of scarlett flash towards Noh-Varr.

The Samuri's sword hand is attacked. THere is a crushing sound of metal as the TK blast hits the wrist. Sparks fly from it, but this is not a pressure point like a living person. The robot holds onto the sword and with surprising quickness is attacking down towards Nate with a swing of the massive sword. If others are around Nate as it strikes, it cares little.

The fireball at its knee does the same thing as the plasma bolt. It flashes over the metal, but it doesn't seem to do a lot of good. The Samuri's other hand goes swinging in a back handed slap towards the flying Xavin.

Torch swoops around the Samuri several times watching as the attacks come at the machine. He responds towards Xavin with a "You think?" and a wink a moment before it becomes "Look out!"

The crowd nearest Sue begins to get the hint and move towards an exit, but it is the crowd further away and out of ear shot that is now beginning to panic. There are screams of terror and pushing as the crowded hall becomes alive with the terror of the mob. Still, there are more flashes going off as the brave or the crazy try to climb displays as they want that one great picture that will make them famous.

Nate Grey pages: actually I was trying to break the arm. How strong is that robot?

As Noh-varr pulls his legs in front him to prepare to land on the robot's head, his ineffectual guns are reconfigured into a long, thin blade. And then the machine's eyes flash red. "RRRRRRGH" he yells, one of the beams digging a furrow across his chest. Had he not twisted, he'd have a hole where his torso was. Noh falls down towards the carpeted floor below.

Owen looks genuinely surprised by the thanks. Nodding, he pulls his hood back up and fills it with DarkForce to hide his face. He's debating fleeing. Giant robots and superheroics in general are not his game and he doesn't like drawing attention to himself. But as he watches the robot attack the people trying to stop it and see people panicking, his conscience gets the better of him. Especially when he sees someone falling out of the air. Cursing, Owen teleports himself again, making sure he's there to catch Noh-Varr before he can hit the ground even if he's got to 'port into mid-air to do it.

"Well, that ain't good!" Rogue was planning on not using her full powers to keep from hurting others - civilians and other heroes alike - but when she notices that their attacks are not doing any good she sees that it's better to go full bore and just hope for the best. Flying straight for that head, the belle starts to try and land some punches on its head, all of her strength put behind each one. And all the time she's thinking to herself 'please don't let anyone get hurt... please...'.

"After our discussion about your car--"

Xavin's annoyance is cut short by the machine's mighty hand, and before she knows it, the alien is a comet streaking towards the now abandoned booth for a forthcoming summer blockbuster; the flames wink out /just/ before she crashes through the stage, leaving her writhing and groaning at the bottom of a pile of rubble rather than an inferno.

"Aah--alright," she sputters with a grimace as she claws her way from the hole, "so its armour isn't just for show; fantastic." With that, she hauls herself up on all fours at the rim of her crater, lets out a heavy breath, then pushes herself upright with one hand while using the other to push hair from her face. Just when she's about to stride towards the samurai for round two, however, a bright flash off in the corner of her vision distracts her; frowning, she whips her head, and then her right arm towards a foolhardy civilian balancing on top of a Sony display.

"These--/people/ are practically /begging/ to be killed by this machine!" she shouts to whomever is in earshot as she sets the gawker down and retracts her elongated arm. "I'm going to feel /very/ conflicted if one of them gets their wish."

Sue Storm floats over toward where the crowds didn't hear her, throwing out a hand to 'catch' the sword before it can reach the... other force field. Her attention's split, though, as she sets a visibly opaque field between the robot and the people starting to panic to make them aware that they have time to NOT panic. She calls out to the people she's now protecting. "Calm down, please! Head for the exits, I promise everything will be fine!" And yes, she just put her back to that giant robot and the sword that is clearly compensating for something.

You Shall Not...Ooops. Wrong scene. As the sword hits with Sue's shield there is a crash of sound and a flash of light. The sword stops dead in the air and there is more sound of twisting metal from the damaged wrist as the pressure of striking the shield goes up the robot's arm. The arm starts to come back up as the head is struck by Rogue. The robot rocks like a boxer getting hit by a haymaker and it stumbles back a few steps now. People scatter from behind it as it looks wobbly on its feet but is actually held up by Sue's force field meant to protect civilains. The torso begins to spin at the waist and the flat of the sword swings towards Rogue like a tennis racket.

Torch, with his arms extended outward and a trail of fire behind him, swoops towards Rogue even as she is punching at the robot. "Of all the cons and all the robot fights in the world, you just walked into mine," he grins with a bad Bogey immitation. He darts downward like a firefly and points a blast of fire at the arm sweeping towards them. The fire looks spectacular, but in the end signifies nothing as the armor is too strong for blasters.

Noh-varr's eyelids flutter and he sees the face of... darkness? above him. He quickly rolls out of Owen's arms and steps back, touching the wound on his chest with a wince. "...Thanks." Noh scans the area, taking in the players finally, as he should have done from the start. Cataloging what he sees and running scenarios in his head. "How much material can you teleport?" he asks of Owen. "Could you, say, take a chunk out of that robot? Or put something inside him?" Teleportation. TK shielding. Twice over. Flight. Flame. There must be something here.

Owen nods, letting Noh go without a hassle. He looks towards the wound on the alien's chest and then back to his face. When asked that question, Owen frowns. "Ah'm not too sure. Haven' ever had to teleport a lot. Could probably get somethin' inside it if Ah knew where it was hollow enough to go," he answers carefully, turning his gaze to the bot. "Could try takin' part of it with me too if need be."

Taking one for the team is nice and heroic and heck, she's not above doing that if it means it'll help. It isn't like she's easily hurt, after all. And heck, she just might've taken the blow by the sword on purpose, if she were to see it coming. But Rogue's distracted by her continual barrage on the metalic rampaging... thing, and then Torch is speaking to her, causing her to look his way for a second. Rookie. Mistake. "Ah ain't against flirting," comes a wry return that's given with a wink, "but Ah don't think this is the right ti..." The blade catches Rogue full on, sending her flying. Several banners are taken out as is a sizable Voltron display, the items slowing her down enough to where she can get her senses back about her before she hits the wall. Her flight resumes in time, seconds before that collusion would have happened, giving her the need to sigh in relief. "Well, damn. This is jus' too much." And like that, she's flying right back to get into the fray once more.

Nate grimaces as the sword hits his forcefield, stepping back as if he had been hit himself. When he looks up again, he spots Rogue, and his eyes widen in surprise. That white stripe is quite distinctive, and very famous in his world. And the robot is aiming for her now, so he takes flight and charges, flying straight towards the weakened wrist, this time trying to hit it with his full power while his body is protected by a telekinetic shield.

Rather than worry about rescuing every would be photographer, Xavin settles for shouting, "If you don't run away /now/, you're probably going to die!" as she breaks into a run--an awkward, crooked, almost lurching run, thanks to her impromptu trip to the ground, but it's at least a little bit faster than walking.

Fire, plasma, and--eye lasers - Nate gets a brief, befuddled look as the Xavin considers the X-Man's strange energy emission - seemed to be of dubious use against the metal monstrosity, and so, taking a page from Rogue's book, she sets her mind on trying to engage it physically. The right side of her body gently ripples mid-stride, and then that foot comes down with a solid *THOOM* when thick, orange grows around it.

By the time she's closing in on the samurai, her right leg, her arm--that whole side of her body is similarly ensconced, lending tremendous amounts of force to the blow she tries to direct at one of the machine's ankles.

The head quickly spins, tracking the incoming Rogue. The eyes glow as they charge and then the energy beams lance outward towards the Southern Belle. It is then struck at the same time high and low. As Nate hits the wounded ankle like a cannon ball, there is a crash and ripping sound of metal. The sword and the hand holding it crash down to the floor. As Nate passes through the damage, there is an immensie electrical discharge towards him where the hand used to be. Xavin's strike at his ankle sends a shudder through the robot and again it takes a step backwards. It stumbles as it steps as the ankle now has a dent in it. The robot steadies and lifts it foot attempting to step on the now rock encrusted alien.

The crowd is actually slowly showing the better part of valor now. It is listening to Sue. They are trying to get out of harm's way. Police that were at the convention are now getting involved with getting people out of the way as quickly as they can. They know better then to engage as the heroes have that at the moment, but they work on getting people out of there with the help of the Invisible Girl.

Torch buzzes around the Samurai's head like a gnat as he takes blasts of fire against it. "The hide isn't reacting to fire much, Sis," he calls back to the older Storm. "Lets see about being a bee in his bonnet though." Torch comes up, zipping around the head and then ducking low under the Samurai's helmet. He vanishes from view.

Noh-varr cooly watches the woman with the shot of white in her hair get smashed and fly right back into things again. He watches Nate struggle at her side. Watches Susan look after the crowd. Watches Xavin bring brute strength to the equation. Watches Johnny... well, there's always gotta be one, right? "How would you feel about hugging the back of a giant robot's head and teleporting as much of it away as you can?" He turns to Owen just as the Human Torch disappears inside the machine. "Here, I'll give you a lift." He weaves the fingers of both hands tomorrow and squats, offering a literal lift for Owen to step into.

Xavin pages: About how heavy would you say the robot is?

Owen watches the battle with wide eyes, not sure what to do. For a moment he actually considers forcing a transformation but then he kicks himself for that. It's a robot, not anything the Bat would be interested in. Not when there's so many tasty people around. Noh-Varr gets his attention again and Owen considers him a moment. "If ya'll think it'll help, Ah'll give it a shot. Not promisin' anything though," he says, stepping into the lift.

Long distance to Xavin: Johnny Storm hmmmms. With the heft of the armor, I'm going to say about as much as three battle tanks maybe? It would be a lot to pick up. I doubt Ben Grimm could do it although an angry Hulk probably could?

Rogue takes this as a chance to show off a little, albeit uncharacteristically so, that being when she pulls a half-loop, half-barrel roll which gets her out of the way of the laser although just barely. "Ah swear, if ya don't learn how to play nice..." Speeding up, she rights herself and begins the assault all over again, hammering at not just the head but the body as well, bouncing between the two spots on the thing like an aerial pingpong ball.

"Hah!" Xavin exults as metal crumples beneath her earthen fist. "Look at it stumble around, like a stupid, awkward Sentr--"

As the shadow growing around her gets too big to ignore, the Skrull halts her dismissal of Kree engineering to snap her attention up at the foot coming down on her; swallowing, she bends at the knees and throws both hands up to receive it. The orange stonework spreads across her back to cover her left arm and shoulder to give her the best possible chance of supporting the machine's weight without, well, dying.

When she eventually comes to at the bottom of a whole new crater a couple seconds later, she will no doubt regret the decision to stand her ground; at least her rocky sheath absorbed some of the impact, leaving her 'merely' dazed and aching rather than crushed flat.

Nate gets shocked even though his telekinetic shield, and crashes on a Nintendo stand just a second later, sending pokemon dolls of all shapes and sizes flying in all direction. He stands up a few seconds later, cleaning blood from his face with his sleeve. Now, the robot looks quite damaged, and if it falls down it might crush dozens of people, so he is going to push it telekinetically somewhere without civilians. Some areas of the convention floor must be free by now.

Sue Storm spares a glance back at Johnny and the others as the police start to actually HELP, her eyes widening and a force field appearing around Xavin at almost the exact same moment. There's not really much she can do to this robot thing with so many others so close to it, but maybe she can try to squish the foot trying to stomp the firey brown haired lady? It's worth a try.

The robot tries to swat the flying Rogue as she ping pongs from head to chest. It looks like an old slap stick routine as one hand slaps his chest while the sparking arm stump swings at its head. It actually strikes its own head and is rocking from the impact. Then it begins to shake its head back and forth as a few drips of molten metal drop out the back of the helmet. The head begins to spin like Linda Blair on crack trying to dislodge the firefly from under the helmet. It won't be prepared for the Owen-Noh-varr Fastball special coming towards it back either. It moves away from Xavin giving her the chance to regroup after climbing out of the crater caused by pressure, force fields, and Super Skrull cadets.

"Attaboy," the Kree exclaims as he stands up fully, throwing Owen high into the air at the robot's head. Rather than try to predict where the robot might move, he toss him into the general vicinity of the head and the flying people "OY! INCOMING!" His blade is back to two guns, tracing fire all around the feet of the creature in an attempt to keep if from getting too stable as he begins to run clockwise around the thing, once again looking for higher ground.

Being thrown wasn't exactly what Owen had in mind. He'd thought Noh-Var would try to fly and carry him even if it was an awkward position. There's a silent 'I owe him a punch' decided as Owen sails through the air. There's also some silent prayers to not end up like a bug. Claws out for all the good it'll go him, Owen grab onto anything he can on that helmet. And should he catch it, he'll be holding on for dear life and wondering why he agreed to this.

Rogue sees the throw out of the corner of her eye and flies out of the way, giving the others a chance to have a bit of fun. Doesn't mean she's done having fun, though. "Don'tcha think Ah'm through with ya," she warns the opposition just before she flies behind the huge thing's head. Looking for whatever hole Johnny might've made to get inside, she starts to tear away at it, wanting to strip it of as much shielding as possible to cause a diversion.

Nate Grey pages: can I make it fall down without crushing anyone?

Long distance to Nate Grey: Johnny Storm was probably going to have it stumble and crash into an empty display as I was thinking what you would probably be doing in this round. It is unsteady on its feet right now and not braced.

Nate, meanwhile, has kept his position by the shattered Nintendo stand. Now he sees an opening and grabs one of the robot's legs with his telekinesis, pulling hard, trying to break the knee, but mostly trying to make it fall on an empty section of the floor.

"Nngh," Xavin exhales as tries to steady herself against 3/4ths of a twisted support rig; the thing creaks and bows beneath her weight, however, forcing her to stumble away and scowl back at the thing over her shoulder momentarily.

"It is /going/ to fall," she announces when she refocuses on the machine and sees her fellow warriors picking and striking at its head. Heavy orange knuckles are cracked with a series of loud, grinding noises, and then she breaks into a ginger jog that soon becomes a brisk run when she sees Nate trying to disturb one of its legs. Rather than another punch, she lowers her head and sets her shoulder, aiming to crash directly into its other ankle and further destabilize the machine.

"You may not want to be /on/ it much longer!" she thinks to shout in warning a few moments out from impact.

It's like having a different-looking Ben helping out. Sinice the police are doing most of the 'herd people to safety' work now, Sue turns her attention more fully to the giant robot thing (IS it a Transformer after all?) and the various individuals trying to stop it. She watches the rock-encased person start charging the robot as if to football-tackle it, and tries to help out by putting a force field behind the thing's legs. Voila, instant trip hazard. Also, she's ready to keep it from landing on anything delicate. Like a person.

The head stop spinning abruptly with the heavy squeel of emergency breaks. Smoke curls out from under the helmet even as Johnny falls out as well clutching hold of something. He is obviously disorientated and dizzy as he moves through the air like a drunken sailor in a hurricane. As it stops, Owen will land on the lower part of the back of the head, towards the neck joint. Rogue's tearing and punching finds the heat softened spot of its helmet and begins to tear away sections showing a hole in the back of its head with slag around the edges.

This is when the big impacts of Nate and Xavin hit coupled with the energy shots of Noh-Varr. The Samurai was badly off balance by the attacks. Its own personal gyro cannot possibly stabilze it in time. With the hits to its legs and Sue's high school tactic of hiding behind the geek, it begins to topple backwards towards the X-Box exhibit and the ten foot statue of Master Chief. As its massive body begins to hit, Master Chief is being crushed against the body next to Owen so now might be a good time to rip as much as he can with a teleport back.

As Noh hops his way up wreckage and stage framework, his outfit erupts a series of heat vents along his spine in a rather Alien-like fashion. Tubes spring forth and wind themselves together into the base of the weirdly insectile rifle that grows from his palms. A helmet, also bug-by-way-of-Giger in fashion, encloses his head and begins scrolling information in a virtual HUD. All the players lit up. Where the robot is leaking energy. Where the armor might be weak. Noh stands atop a teetering Hello Kitty and holds the rifle stock against one hip as the armor shred. Time to aim... wait for it... wait for it...THERE. Whatever major hole opens up, the Kree fires a high yield molecular destabilizer thingamadoodad towards it.

Hood fallen back to rexpose his fuzzy head, Owen clings as tightly as he can. He coughs at the smoke, scowling as he looks up. "Look out if ya'll wanna keep your arms!" he calls out, DarkForce coming off his body quickly. He concentrates and then teleports, taking as much of the metal with him as he can. He appears atop a ruined booth with his haul, tumbling off it thanks to the bad landing.

The stripe-haired woman continues her own efforts up until the time it looks like the robot is going to fall and does not quit one second before, Rogue's tearing away ending only when she has to dodge. Her hands are brushed off before she looks aroun, making sure there's no one in need of saving, hovering there in mid-air while she does.

Nate raises a hand, but pushes with his mind, and he is spending a huge amount of (poorly focused) power in toppling the giant machine. As it impacts the floor, he groans, more blood tricking from his nose and ears, and falls to his knees, exhausted. Looks like it is over, so now he is going to find a place to rest, and avoid the cops.

Xavin draws back and brings her hands up defensively as the robot begins its descent, and ends up waiting until it's almost on its back to start trying to find some purchase on one of its exposed soles so that she can scramble up its foot and - she hopes - along the rest of its body, once it's settled.

If she's able to make any headway at all, she'll pause brace tightly against the foot, in the hopes of keeping the violence of its landing from throwing her free, and once she recovers from the shockwaves reverberating through its chassis, she'll concentrate on trying to traverse - and subdue - it; every few steps, she pauses to stamp her heavy foot into its armour, or hammer at it with a fist, or even an elbow if she can reach, anything to make /sure/ it won't be getting back up again.

Sue Storm tries to keep the giant robot from CRASHING to the floor, but can't really see to properly past the robot itself and all of the people working together to knock it down to confidently place a force field. She does, though, see Johnny emerge rather wobbly-like, so she catches him in a force field and moves him toward the floor. That way, if he choses to fall over he at least won't have very far to go. Finally moving closer, she asks the room in general, "Is everyone all right?"

The Samurai crashes through the X-Box exhibit and poor Master Chief is ground into dust. Dust billows up and every where as it crashes to the ground. It pauses for a moment and it begins to struggle except that it now has several holes in its armor. The weak spot in the back of the head and now the large chunk of hide that Owen took with him during the teleport. Sparks fly from the exposed circuitry making it an easy target for Noh-varr's rifle shot. As the energy shot strikes the robot's innards, it shakes as if in death throughs, but Xavin's weight and steps help keep it mostly on the ground and thus little more collateral damage. All the people have gotten out so the civilains are safe too. The Samurai struggles for a little bit longer but then the eyes glow brightly with a flash and then slowly fade to off.

Johnny is brought down by Sue's shield and puts his empty hand to his head, extinguishing himself as he does. "Someone get the name of that merri-go-round? Think I'm going to be sick." He slowly makes his way away from the wreckage of the downed robot.

Noh's uniform retracts the more extreme features, and the gun melts back into his gauntlets. Things look... well, not exactly peaceful given the insane wreckage, but relatively calm now. Eyeing the police below as they increase in number he jumps up from his perch, grabs a hanging rope to pull himself up. He runs quickly across the cable suspending a banner advertising the next Avengers movie and launches himself through an already shattered pane of glass making up the Javitz Center's north wall.

Rogue slowly comes in for a landing, floating down only to then stop besides Johnny and his sister. "Ah'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that isn't normal for one of these gatherings. Or at least Ah hope that is the case..." A glance given to the former fiery one and she grinning. "If ya want to continue with the flirtin'..."

Pushing to his feet, Owen looks like he's been through the wringer. Using that much DarkForce and teleporting that much after being thrown like that took it out of him. Leaning on anything he can for support, Owen starts pulling his hood up. "Ah've...been better."

"You'll want to be careful about driving away in your flamboyant car," Xavin dryly remarks as she leaps from the samurai's thigh with a resounding *BOOM!*, "You may not want people to notice if you end up stopping to throw up; very unheroic."

Or so she assumes; back home, a soldier throwing up after combat could expect to be rewarded with hours of grueling drills--if they were /lucky/. She can only imagine that humans would hold their heroes to similarly high standards.

"Also, someone might want to tell whomever is in charge that their decorations need... work," she adds, eyes trailing after the rapidly fleeing Noh-varr. A quick look around at the police filling the area tells her that she might do well to follow the Kree's example, and so, after quickly looking between the remaining heroes, she concludes, "Someone other than me; it's been a pleasure. Maybe we'll do it again, sometime," while her rocky shell shrinks and darkens into black and violet-clothed flesh.

And then, once the last pebble is no more, the Skrull herself vanishes.

Of course, going invisible doesn't make running for the nearest exit any less painful, but it does make it significantly safer; all she has to do is try not to stagger into anything. Or anyone.

Sue Storm looks Rogue up and down with an expression of 'Seriously?' on her face then she turns to her brother. "Do you need a lift home?" Her concern for him is clear, which, DUH. Older sister here.

"Sue, Sue, quick..." Johnny waves his hand at his sister as if requesting she hand him something. "Just a little invisible bubble. Don't want to throw up in the new car after all." He grins up at Rogue, but he still looks a little green after having gone through the spin cycle inside the robot's head. "Here, gorgeous. Got ya a present." He tosses what he was holding in his other hand towards Rogue. It would appear to be a transmitter although Reed might get more out of later.

Owen quietly makes his way towards Sue and Johnny, steps a little unsteady. When he gets close enough, Owen clears his throat. "Don't suppose Ah could trouble you folks for a lift outta here?" he asks.

The 'gift' is deftly caught and then is looked at, the inspection she gives the transmittor making it so that she totally doesn't notice the look she's given by Sue. "Wow. Thanks," she says honestly, the appreciation voiced sincere. Noticing that they're not alone, Rogue steps back and waves. "Ah should get goin'. Ah'll... well." This is where she trips herself up a bit and winds up blushing thanks to her verbal... lameness. "Ya want to get coffee or somethin' sometime, Johnny?" Yes, she caught his name. Wasn't hard to when he had more than one girl at his display screaming his name.

Sue Storm sighs and rolls her eyes, but uses a force field to hastily snag and pull over a trash can for Johnny to hurl in. She then looks at Owen as he approaches and her demeanor almost instantly becomes concerned again. "Are you all right?" She'll give Rogue the big sister glare of doom (tm) again later.

Owen pulls his hood a little farther in a vain attempt to hide the fur and glowing eyes. "Ah need a bit of rest. Never teleported anythin' that big before..." he hesitates. "And Ah could use somethin' tah eat," he murmurs. He means it in both senses of it.

Johnny sits over the trash can for a second, but is able to stop...no, he isn't. After a few less than attractive noises, Johnny stands up and looks around for a towel or something. He grins without really opening his mouth to Rogue and nods. "Sure. You stop by the Baxter Building. I'll even spring for the coffee." He heads back closer to the group again and nods to Owen. "Sis will be happy to get you home. She is the soft heart of the FF after all. 'sides, you helped us against the big ugly over there. She'll probably swing by some fast food place for ya."

At this point, the cops are all over the place and cordining off the "disaster" area. One man who looks in charge is coming towards the group of heroes. "Can we get statements from...." He recognizes the two FF members. "Oh! Can I get your autographs? My son will never believe I saw you two."

Sue Storm nods her agreement with Johnny's words to Owen, then turns and steps between the police offers and their two new acquaintances, mostly to keep them from seeing the fur covering Owen's skin. "Sure. Though, you'll need statements also, right? Would it be okay if Johnny and I went down to the precinct tomorrow?"

The sight of cops makes Owen shrink back. He looks grateful when Sue moves to block him from view, sticking his hands in his pockets and keeping his head down. He'll wait quietly there. Though he does hold up a small tin of 'curiously powerful' mints to Johnny in a silent offer for something to take care of the post-hurling bad tastes.