2014.07.21 - Hot Dam! LEROOOYYYYY JEEEEEEENKIIIINSSSS!

The Three Gorges Dam is a great feat of civil engineering. It is the largest concrete structure in the world, as well as the world's largest hydroelectric dam.

It's certainly something the world could be very proud of in and of itself, but even beyond that, the lives of many of the Chinese are dependent upon its continued existence to prevent the years of flooding the dam has kept back from rushing into their homes and cities.

It's a clear, beautiful day out, and everyone is just going about their business. Boats of all sizes traverse the river, passing in and out of the huge dam through the massive ship locks. Tourists explore the local attractions. But today, there seems to be an additional attraction: the Human Torch is here, waving to the sightseers and dam workers below. Everything seems normal, for now that is.

A few media-owned helicopters have even ventured into the air to get more up close and personal. A journalist is leaning out the door of the chopper, holding a microphone up to him, supposedly interviewing him while in the air. Meanwhile, quite the crowd has gathered below to watch, film, and photograph his typically flamboyant antics. None of them are afraid, or worried, because Johnny is such a hero! He would never intentionally hurt anyone innocent, right?

Jo is currently on the flight deck of the SHIELD helicarrier, watching the monitors. He does not currently see anything requiring his intervention, but he know how rapidly that can change.

"Got a fix on Hot Head," Scarlet Spider cried in on the intercom in the Baxter Building. He slipped on the black mask to the spider-armor that Reed had made for him. Turning on the suit the red bits lit up as if on cue. "Dressed and ready to go," he chimed back in over the intercom. Whether or not anyone was in the building Scarlet went to his portion of the Fantastic-Car, as Reed called it, and waited patiently for the others to arrive.

By the time anyone arrived, if anyone did, Scarlet was already running through the various diagnostics. His section of the vehicle was ready to go.

Johnny was owed a beatdown for the train derailment alone. His hands clenched into fists as he thought of his friend Amy and how her life was endanger thanks to Johnny's actions. The two family members had some business to settle between them now. Sue Storm hears Ben's call out over the Baxter's intercom system -- something she's been waiting to hear for days now -- and she replies with a quick, "Thanks Ben" before she abandons what she was working on to hurry and change clothes. She arrives at the vehicle just a few minutes after Ben, clambering into her section of the vehicle to start the same checks that the black-clad young man is just about finishing. "Reed? ETA. Please." Yeah, she sounds stressed. Though really, that's pretty much the way she's been since Johnny fled the Baxter. It feels like months ago and just yesterday both at the same time.

Bobby had just been stopping by to talk to Sue and Reed about the Johnny situtation. In his uniform, he arrived just in time for the announcement and for Sue to rush past. "Hey, I'm coming too!" he calls, following after his friend's sister. He arrives at the car shortly after Sue, taking an open seat. "Where'd you get that fix?" he asks, shifting into his organic ice form but keeping the icy armor on top of it. He already knows every little bit helps.

Stretching from an access port to get to the Fantasticar pad in the hanger bay, Reed Richards arrives. Sporting a new uniform and some facial hair to boot. He's been busy. Hanging from a strap that goes from shoulder to hip, Reed carries a box. What's in it only Mister Fantastic can say, but currently he's staying quiet. He seems to be working on something in his head. However it doesnt stop him from getting into the flying vehicle. "Ben get us to Johnny." Reed says, his voice sounding more like the the other Ben's. Seems like someone hasnt been sleeping again.

Monitor Duty at the Watchtower wasn't exactly his cup of tea. Especially since he had the rookie complex over him, where fear of messing something up was a constant worry of his. Fortunately the tower did most of the processing for you, and his duty was relegated no to the main monitor womb but to some of the less urgent feeds.

Since his encounter with the Torch, however, he had set a little alert for any mention of Johnny that could pop up over the media-- most of it had been old news, rehashed 'Has he gone mad?' articles... but he had to keep an eye out. Just in case.

And it's the little alert that snaps him out of perusing some news of civil unrest in Paraguay- no violence yet- and makes him focus on an interview that seems to be 'live' in China.

"Goddamnit..." Vorpal hisses under his breath, pinpointing the location. "That's going to be catastrophic if..." There wasn't a moment to lose- he stands up and makes a break for it. The shuttle should take him there quickly, but who knew if that was enough? On his way to the shuttle, he takes advantage of the satellite to send a message to Bobby's phone.

Onora hadn't said much since the night 'Johnny' took off. She had spent much of her time trying to hunt him down with no real luck. Always just a step behind. She did, however, luck out in hearing the announcement. Given the lack of communication, it's quite possible the newly developed telepathy had been a temporary thing. It doesn't stop her from making her way to one of the windows and jumping. The shift in midair means that the very large blue and purple dragon will be following along.

Johnny's been shooting little golden 'fireworks' into the air to please the crowds, and even more people start to gather on the top of the dam to watch. Best view from there! They all look quite excited, holding up their phones and everything to catch the display. Meanwhile, the reporter has finally gotten to the question the possessed Torch has been waiting for: "So what brings you to the great Three Gorges Dam today? Anything other than sightseeing, even though it is quite a sight to see?" he asks with a smile. Torch grins at this. "That's a very good question Mr. Chen," he says, as he floats backward a little bit, away from the helicopter. "I was hoping you would ask. You're right, I am here for a reason--that is, one besides simple sightseeing. I'm here because of my dad, Slade. The rest of the world probably knows him as Deathstroke the Terminator. You see I wanted him to see the kind of person I've become, no small thanks to the -amazing- father he's always been. He's definitely talented, that's for sure!" he laughs bitterly, then raises his voice a bit so that the people below can hear him, too. "Who -wouldn't- want to BE like him, huh? Someone who doesn't let his friends and family drag his career down? Who would never let his relationships with them get in the way of getting the job done? -That's- the kind of man -anyone- would want for a hired kill!"

A shocked hush falls over the crowd, and they glance nervously at each other. What's going on? Torch's father was an assassin? Finally, the reporter breaks the awkward silence with another question, a puzzled look on his face.

"...what do you mean, exactly?"

Torch smirks. "I'm here as a tribute to my father..."

"...and I'm gonna make him -proud-."

With that, much to shock and horror of everyone watching, 'Johnny' suddenly blasts the helicopter with superheated fiery plasma. It immediately turned into a blazing inferno and falls, crashing down toward the dam. The crowd below lets loose with shrieks of fear, running in all directions in an attempt to avoid the fiery chopper. It lands with a crash on top of the dam, and flaming bits of it fall off into the water below.

"See what I mean -now-?" he laughs as the destruction gives way to chaos. But he's -far- from finished. "This is how dad would have done things! Maximum return, minimum effort!" More fire erupts from his hands, and he begins to superheat what remained of the helicopter fuel, which has spilled onto the top of the dam. The concrete starts to melt and crack...already little jets of Yangtze River water is starting to poke its way through.

The Chinese authorities are panicking now. They know what's at stake, here. They attempt to shoot at him, however, their weapons are simply useless against him, as the bullets either melt or pass through his plasma form. It's going to be up to the world's heroes once again, to stop the mass genocide!

There was another figure that had been ready to jump into the fray. That it was invisible at the moment worked greatly to its advantage, as Iron Fist jumps in and becomes another variable, one that allows the unseen figure to wait before intervening.

Punching in various buttons Scarlet looked over the crew, "Hang on tight kids." His gaze went to Iceman, "You too Snow Cone." For the briefest of moment it was Scarlet's real nature coming to the surface but then it died with his next words. Looking at Sue, "Johnny's not right. Sometimes the rabid animal needs to be tranqed before doctors can fix it. Snuff him out if you have to. Don't hesitate because he won't hesitate to nuke us. If you want to debate me, ask me how those people in the derailed train car feel," his words were hard and cold. People rarely saw the angry and cold side to Scarlet. Usually he kept that part of him buried down.

In his spot he started up the Fantasticar. The vehicle lurched forward then lifted up. Before long the foursome were in the skies flying toward Torch's location. Patching into his communicator, "Cel. Patch the suit into the news feed via the communicator." Before long the H.E.R.B.I.E. unit gave Scarlet the audio feed to Torch's tribute.

"He's destroying a dam and calling himself Deathstroke's son," the words were cold and he punched in the buttons to make the vehicle go faster. It wouldn’t take long for them to be over the dam. Before they got there he had to ask, "What's the plan to put the dog down?" Scarlet was happy to go in guns blazing but he knew it wasn't smart. Getting in with a plan was the key.

Invisible Girl looks over at Ben. "I know. I won't hesitate." As they get underway, she looks at the others briefly in turn. "Bobby, I think you'll be best at making sure the dam doesn't fall apart. Freeze the entire reservoir if you have to. Ben, will you be able to help him with that?" She looks at Reed, tries to visually figure out what's in that case, then gives up. "I'll hand Johnny directly myself."

She glances down at the control panel in front of her as something blinks, then she turns to look and spots the honestly VERY impressive dragon flying along with them. "That's got to be Onora," she half mutters to herself. But how can she signal the shapeshifter to join them so they can include her in their plans?

"Already know it, webs," Iceman remarks, concentrating on making himself colder and his ice denser as they travel. "Me and Vorpal ran into him a couple days back and he almost charcoaled an entire part of the city. Whoever's in the driver's seat in flamebrain's head is getting one hell of an asskicking when this is done," he says. And then Ben reveals what's going on and Bobby's eyes widen. He nods to Sue though. "Yeah, I can handle it. One of my usual training programs," he replies. Nevermind that it's going to be on a much larger scale. He blinks when his phone goes off, checking it quickly. "Vorpal's coming down from the JLA's space-clubhouse to help out."

As Reed sits in his pod he seems to be fiddling with some of the panels. Opening them and pulling out some wires. It doesnt take long before his pod is in apparent chaos, that's when he pulls the box into his lap and opens it. From inside he removes a round, and very familiar helmet. It's what he's been working on for the past days now. Reed says nothing and remains quiet as he begins to attach leads and wires to the Fantasticar. He has a plan, maybe; possibly, okay its a facsimile of a plan.

The shuttle is speedy, and very soon the Cheshire cat's transport is a twinkling light in the sky.

In the cockpit, Vorpal frowns as the last few seconds of the 'interview' are repeated. And repeated. And repeated again.

"... goddamnit, Johnny..." he wishes he had had time to get Patrick. With his training, he had an advantage in fighting other heroes. He alters the course of the shuttle and increases propulsion, trying to zero in on Johnny as quickly as he can. "Desperate plan number one: Give him something to shoot at other than the people below." Sound plan, right?

The shuttle zooms to its destination, the bright light that is Johnny coming quickly into view. He is by no means a good pilot- the shuttle's guidance system was meant to compensate for someone with rudimentary training in an emergency. But he has the impression that the intended programming was not meant for this sort of thing. "...well, it's worse than nothing, right?" He exhales, and sends a salvo from the shuttle's weapons towards Johnny. It doesn't matter if they hit, as they are unlikely to harm him in this state. All he wants is his attention.

Almost as if she heard the idle wonderings, the dragon turns an eye towards where the jet is, whether it can be seen or not. << Sue...>> The send is sent to Sue and Sue alone. <> It sounds like she knows exactly what she's going to be doing. Of course, it doesn't sound like she's at all sure it will work. It could go one of two ways. Either she's successful and she can bring Johnny back... Or they both die.

Even as Johnny's friends are on their way, the dam continues to break. The cracks spread in a web-like fashion, and soon bits of concrete are being pushed out by the water. The boats that had been headed toward the dam quickly capsize as concrete flies and the water begins to gush out faster and faster. Meanwhile, the Torch keeps a steady flow of fire concentrated on the spot where the helicopter had fallen. If he keeps this up...at the rate he's going the dam is going to break clean in half within a matter of minutes. All of this is clearly visible to anyone in the Fantasticar or watching the news anywhere, since it's all on the live feed.

Suddenly, a shuttle weapon salvo comes toward Johnny, and he looks up to see Vorpal flying straight at him. "Haha! The cat again, huh? You think you can stop me?" he stops shooting fire at the dam for now, but the damage has been done. The water continues to slam itself against the already weakened structure. "You're too late!" The fire is now directed at Vorpal's shuttle. He'd better 1. execute evasive maneuvers 2. hope the automated guidance systems can do that if he can't or 3. bail out before it explodes. Jo hears about the situation as soon as it comes up on the monitor screens. Before he leaves the Helicarrier, he switches to Ultra Speed and looks up Deathstroke and his known relatives. It is quite clear who we have to be dealing with here. What is less clear is how to deal with him. Jo exits the Helicarrier and heads strait upwards until the atmosphere thins before increasing to supersonic speed. Once out of the atmosphere his Transsuit activates and he has no trouble breathing. It will be a few minutes before he reaches China.

Pushing a few buttons Scarlet's car disengaged the vehicle flew. A few more buttons were pressed. A type of auto pilot was activated the Vehicle was hovering near him. Suddenly he hopped out of the seat he stepped onto the hood. "Back in my day people used to say things on the internet like," he was talking to himself before jumping off the Fantasticar, "LEEEEEEEERRROOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYY JEEEEENNNNNKKKKKKKKKKIINNNNNNNNNS!!!" Scarlet dove down in a free fall. The Car was chasing after him but keeping a little distance. There was a method to the Spider's madness.

When he was near the dam an arm lanced upward, "Thwp!" A web-line connected to his Fantasticar. He was using the high-tech vehicle as a floating anchor. With a webline connecting him to the Fantasticar his legs wrapped around webbing.

Hanging upside down his hands started to lash out in quick fashion. Each bit of ice Bobby sent up got reinforced with webbing. When Bobby went left or right, Scarlet just swung from the webline and the ship was there following the signal in his suit. This way saved on webbing too since he had the moving vehicle dangling the webline.

Sure it was more compliated than just bungy jumping right off a still vehicle, but that long webling could have been cut. At least if Johnny wanted to cut Scarlet's line he would have to go around the vehicle somehow.

As he kept up with Bobby Scarlet was still talking, "And we liked it that way," he had to finish the meme while working. At least he could make light of a dark situation.

Invisible Girl says, "Reed, whatever you're doing, make it fast." Sue leaves the Fantasticar at about the same moment that Scarlet and his portion of the vehicle break off to go work on shoring up the dam. She's invisible a scant second later and ghosting toward her brother at full speed. She doesn't bother calling him out or even giving any warning about her presence, she simply heads for him with the intention of trapping him in a force field and keeping him there until he passes out from oxygen deprivation. And if that doesn't work, then she'll use it to drag him through the resevoir. He probably needs a bath anyway."

As soon as they're in range, Bobby's leaping out of the car. "Cold front coming through!" he calls, quickly forming up and ice slide and heading right for the dam. There's trouble all around him but he's got to focus on the big deadly wall of water that might come out. He targets the cracks and gushing areas first, firing off beams of frigid energy to stem the tide and hopefully prevent more damage. He's making several passes, back and forth to keep up with the cracks and water.

Make it quick? Why are situations always like this need to be done quickly. As soon as the helmet is linked up, Reed separates his pod from the others as well and puts it into an continuous orbit around the situation.

One thing that is not included in the driver's manual of the Justice League Shuttle is how spectacularly it tends to explode. Granted, this seldom happens because the people piloting A) are usually good pilots and B) have better training than to resort to suicide runs. As it is, though, the shuttle holds up admirably under Johnny's power--- for a few seconds, at least. At the level of power that the Human Torch is exhibiting, the shuttle doesn't stand a chance for long.

"I guess I've got his attention..." the cheshire mutters, trying not to panic. Evasive maneuvers are in order- so he engages the autopilot for it as he becomes invisible and leaves an illusion of himself in the cockpit.

As he teleports out of the shuttle, it dips low and tries to fly out of Johnny's line of fire, about the same time as the invisible Vorpal levitates upwards. The shuttle should keep him occupied for a few more seconds at least, he thinks, but then he'll have to switch over to something else to keep Johnny interested.

And that's when the cavalry arrives, spotting more heroes at the scene.

It's a pity he can't hail them, as speaking would break his invisibility and make him an instant target for Cat BBQ.

The rather large, European style dragon that had been flying in finds the nearest spot large enough to accommodate her and lands. The wings are folded against her back as she sits on her haunches. Thankfully, dragon... Fire isn't a huge deal for her this time like it was last time.

With everyone else distracting him, she's able to focus her mind on working her way into his. As deeply as possible. Really, she can't help with the dam or the rest of it right now. Well, she could, but... there are others to handle that.

Thankfully the shuttle's systems seem to have some kind of evasive maneuvers programming, and it manages to survive the barrage...for all of a few seconds. It would take an expert-level pilot to dodge all that. The shuttle goes up in flames, and plummets toward the ground. Given that this is such a densely-populated area, it's going to cause some serious havoc if it crashes into that shopping strip it's headed for.

With that taken care of, Johnny turns his attention back to the dam, since he doesn't see Sue coming at him, and no one else is directly attacking him for the time being. He descends until he's hovering just above the top of it, and resumes the superheated assault upon the massive concrete structure. Which means that Ben and Bobby's job just got a lot harder. The cracks open even wider as even more cracks form, and the water exerts its colossal weight against the crudely patched structure all the more.

Torch glances up at whatever Reed is doing, but doesn't move to try to stop him. He simply taunts them. "You morons seem to have forgotten that I have your precious friend by the neck! I could destroy his mind right now, turn him into a shell of what he once was! Or I could simply kill him...and on top of all that--well, see for yourselves! There's no stopping this now." Perhaps he actually can, but perhaps he can't. He could certainly kill Johnny, however if he did he'd have to quickly leave Torch's body. But they don't know that, do they?

Invisible Girl gasps as the shuttle starts falling toward the populated areas and ends up having to abandon her plan to (kind of literally) snuff her brother out. Still unseen, she veers to follow the flaming wreckage, throwing both hands forward to create a force field big enough and strong enough to catch the shuttle and carry it to a safe landing place.

Jo descends from orbit and reaches the upper atmosphere before switching to flight with his flight ring and scanning the scene with his ultra vision. He immediately locates the Torch, and the others not long after. He also sees the damage to the dam.

"Someone do something about that plane!" Iceman calls out as he notices the burning shuttle streaking by overhead. He's continuing the patch job, leaving massive icy patches along cracks and freezing streams of water solid. The superheated assault makes things even more complicated though. His web-reinforced ice patches were already cracking and breaking but the fiery assault only accelerates the process and Iceman scowls. "This isn't going to work..." he trails off even as he keeps working. "Hey! Spider-guy! How much webs do ya have on ya?" he asks, working to make patches bigger. He's got an idea, he just needs a little time bought.

What is he up to indeed. Reed had heard of a device that was able to enter a persons mind. Rumor had it in the premises of a private school in upstate, but Reed didnt have the time to contact the owner. So for the last few days he has been working on his own version. Albeit an untested version. As the power adapter is installed Reed slips the helmet on. Once settled onto his head Reed starts to speak to himself. "Alright, if my calculations are correct I should have enough power in my pod to activate this and attempt to help." Pulling his pod into a hover, as to not use up more energy, Reed starts to activate the helmet. Of course what Reed didnt hear in the rumor, is that a powerful telepath owns the device upstate and is the only one who can use it properly. But Reed attempts none the less.

Vorpal's range isn't enough to catch the shuttle, so he has to trust that the other heroes can take care of it. Invisible as he is, he can only hope to distract Johnny without a direct confrontation. He simply does not have the power to withstand a direct impact.

Althoug his constructs might hold up at their top strength, but that is something he is not ready to find out yet. Instead, he can only think of the one telepath he has met who could be used as a distraction.

Emma Frost, headmistress of his school.

It is, in fact, Emma's enormous, disembodied head that stares down at Johnny*. "Are you having fun in the driver's seat? I do not think you have a license to operate this vehicle..." she gives him one of her slight, corner-of-the-mouth smiles. "Let's fix that, shall we?" she says, her eyes beginning to glow as if she were about to deliver some level of psychic smackdown.

Vorpal, focusing on the illusion, hovers to a point below Johnny, trying to stay out of the arc of his potential outbursts.

~I hope Headmistress Frost does not hear about this...~


 * This is not to say that Emma has an enormous head. Only the illusion does.

Jo decides that it is time for a water spout, If he flues rapidly in a circle just above the waves using hus ultra-speed flight he should be able to hold his ultra energy aura in an reate a vortex to draw the water into the air, then use it to splash the torch...

The civilians in the shopping area scream and run for cover, though most of them weren't going to make it fast enough. That is, unless Sue Storm uses her force fields to catch the flaming shuttle and place it somewhere safe. Which she does quite well. There's almost a collective sigh of relief heard. Almost. Not quite because there's still a fight going down at the dam, and it's not looking good. Too much damage has already been done...if one were to do the math, even if someone manages to incapacitate the Torch right now, it was going to take a colossal amount of power to keep the water from surging forward and destroying the dam all on its own.

Meanwhile, the assault upon the dam continues, but suddenly the giant head of Emma Frost appears? Now if Jericho hadn't been in Johnny's head, this probably wouldn't have worked because he doesn't know who Emma is or what she can do. Johnny, however, does, and since Jericho now knows everything Johnny knows, he's startled and puzzled by her sudden appearance. Was she somewhere below?

"E-emma Frost? But--" He falters momentarily, staring up at her, but then shakes it off. "No matter! Even if you kill me now, the damage has been done! Millions of people will die, because of the monster my father has created! And -nothing- is going to stand in my way!" Vorpal's illusions will buy them more time...but that's all they will do. Someone is going to have to find a way to get Johnny back to himself, while someone -else- is going to have to find a way to stop all that water. Speaking of the water, more and more of it crashes through the holes that are now even larger than before. Some of it is sucked into Jo's vortex, but the surrounding areas are already beginning to flood. Authorities are frantically scrambling to get everyone evacuated as quickly as possible.

Scarlet Spider was frantically trying to patch up the dam. As things just worsened he spoke into the communicator, which went only to Sue. "Sue. Get me in a bubble. Launch me to your brother. Kill off our oxygen." Flames needed air to work. Super strength just needed a conscious body. Sure they would have given out a few times, but maybe the armor would have held up against the flames. Also, just because Johnny was able to make fire didn't mean his jaw wasn't glass. A couple of well placed punches could have neutralized Johnny.

Scarlet waited to see if Sue was going to create the assist. His webbing was running low as the cracks kept coming. He was breathing hard looking to Iceman, "Snow Job! Remind me to buy you a meal after this one!" this was his way of showing respect. Sure Scarlet probably never would have called Iceman by his real name, but that didn't mean there was a lack of respect. It was just the spider's way.

Invisible Girl just barely manages to set the remains of the JLA shuttle down in a mostly vacant parking lot when Scarlet calls out for her help. She looks up, having lost altitude while focusing so much of her concentration on the vehicle. But now as she sees the situation again, she shoots upward once more. "Ben, it'd be easier if I just trapped him by himself," she replies, smearing the back of her left glove red as she absently wipes at the beginning of a nosebleed. She doesn't need to be that close, honestly. Rather than wasting more time, she reaches out with one hand as if trying to catch a flying bug, and a force field so completely opaque it is as blue as deep-glacier ice appears around the Torch. Nothing is getting through it, not water, not air, not even light or sound.

"It's a date then, webs," Iceman calls back. He glances at the water spout and curses. "HEY! Worry about getting people safe, not auditioning for Sharknado 3!" he yells to Jo as he heads for the dam itself. And then it was up and over. "This is such a bad idea," he remarks, running for the edge of the dam. He's focusing on the training he's been doing lately. The feeling he's gotten a few times before when he's pushed himself to his absolute limit. The air around him grows incredibly cold, frost spreading rapidly. "GET CLEAR!" he warns anyone close by. And then he's unleashing icy frigid energy. It spreads rapidly, freezing water and dam alike. What's pretty much a blizzard is expanding from Bobby's position too, freezing winds and snows adding to the arctic assault.

Alone in his pod Reed attempts to use the untested peice of tech he had just built. As the power slowly rises the effects of the device are slowly rising as well. Okay that tingles. Followed by a small pain on the right lobe. Now comes the headache. Oh... now the migraine. Grr.. Onset of a possible aneurism. "Johnny..." Reed reaches out using the helmet, his teeth gritting. "Come on Johnny!" Now with both hands griping the side of the helmet, a trickle of blood starts to drip from his nose. "Override safety shutdown... Have to do this." he says through gritted teeth. The pain is immense, it feels as if his brain is being vivisected without any anesthesia. Must expand. Between the pain and the concentration its a feat to do the one thing Reed can do, by literally expanding his brain in his skull, but it's only enough to make one more try. "DAMNIT JOHNNY AWAKE!" The mental stress of the last call alone causes Reed to pass out. Unsure if it worked or not, but its a loud enough to send the call out to a few telepaths. And it doesn't take long, soon after blacking out, built in medical sensors in his pod sense the immense strain to Reed's body and in turn send out a distress to the other Fantasticar pods. Alerting the others of Reed's condition before the auto-pilot lands the craft.

~Damnit, this isn't helping...~

~Yeah, but what can you do? All the cool powers are taken~

~... wait a minute.~

Emma Frost's head grows to impossible proportion and darts quickly forwad, 'swallowing' Johnny apparently. Or at least that is what might be conveyed, because the illusion then transforms into a band of solid darkness around the Human Torch's eyes. It's just more psychological distress and distractions, but it is the only thing he can think of. His power of construct creation would only allow for one fifteen-foot sized construct, and that is nowhere near enough to plug up the dam. It is up to those with true power to stop it up- what he can do is screw with Johnny's mind to keep him occupied.

The mental blast from Reed causes her to give a cry of her own which would, unfortunately, reveal her presence inside 'Johnny's' mind. She may eat Reed for that later. She doesn't really have time to wonder how he managed it. She's been given away.... <>

Jo realizes that the Torch is now surrounded by an energy field, which makes splashing him useless. He also sees the Iceman trying to cool the dam down, though it would work better if he were behind the dam. He sees someone in a funny helmet and a flying pod doing...hmmm what is he doing anyway? Jo flies over and studies the device at Ultra-speed to get the gist of it. He switches to Ultra vision to check some circuitry and realizes what is missing. He says to Reed, whom he has met just once before, "You need this...it is a telepathic translator unit. It will put you mind on the right frequencies to use this device." Jo hands over his telepathic earplug to Reed. Jo is glad he as seen similar devices used by Saturn Girl... Jo was so busy studying the machine that he failed to realize the one who had been wielding it had passed out from the strain, at least until he tried to hand him the ear plug. He frowns and tries to think who would be best suited to using the device...

Correction: Millions, not thousands. Three very densely populated Chinese cities, including Shanghai, are located downstream of this dam, not mention the additional smaller towns and villages that may also be near its shores. In fact, a disaster of this nature would wipe out 60%+ of the entire population of the People's Republic of China...

Bobby's efforts seem to finally be doing something, though at this point it's not -quite- enough. The water is freezing, but there's just so much of it. There's a massive groan as the concrete at the point of impact finally gives in, collapsing down into the river below and leaving a colossal chasm in the structure behind. Finally free, the water surges through, furiously forcing its way downstream....it's almost like watching a miniature tsunami in the middle of the city. But all hope is not yet lost. If Bobby can get in front of the massive wall of water before it strikes a major city, he just -might- be able to freeze it up entirely, creating a temporary dam made completely of ice to keep the rest of the river back at least until the real dam can be repaired.

Meanwhile, Johnny/Jericho is being psychologically assaulted by three people, and trapped inside of a force field. His flames are quickly extinguished and he passes out soon after. Jericho, however, is still in there... At that point comes Reed's makeshift Cerebro-fueled assault. <...n-no...what have I done...please, make it stop...tell Susan to drop us and s-save herself...and save -them-...> And suddenly, there are two people in Sue's force bubble, instead of just one.

Seeing the epitome of the problem, "You lead the charge Frosty, I'll keep your ice reinforced. Make it count or a lot of kids won't be seeing you this holiday season," Scarlet waited for Iceman to foce everything he had on that one spot. The second the ice went up orbs started to fly out from his web shooters. Impact webbing was great in some ways. When they connected to their targets a cocoon of webbing wrapped around people or a good chunk of webbing went over a certain area. The drawback was each bit of impact webbing spent one whole cartridge. Calculating each spot that needed reinforcing, Scarlet shot out five orbs. Each one busted open spreading webbing like no tomorrow. "I hope this holds!" he cried out to Bobby.

Invisible Girl waits until she /thinks/ Johnny should be back from flameball to normal annoying younger brother. The force field gradually goes translucent, and she visibly startles. There are now TWO people inside the force field. How the heck did that happen? It doesn't help that her commlink keeps pinging about R... ohgod. Reed. She all but freefalls to where the Fantasticar's autopilot brought the vehidcle to rest, the force field containing two people following along like a kite on a string. "Reed!?"

Bobby can't hear too well over the icy rage he's unleashing. But he definitely noticed the rushing waters. "Dammit," he says, taking off a lot faster than he normally does. He just barely gets ahead of the wall of watery doom and lets the blizzard out again. He's pushing himself harder than he ever has before and any telepaths that take a peek will see he's mostly checked out. He's forcusing on making that huge wall and making sure it holds against the pressure. He's pushing his powers hard enough that the water coming into contact with the icy dam starts freezing too.

Onora presses her mind deeper into his. It's more than a little straining for her to do this and where the large dragon sits, there's a flash of light and the dragon is gone, leave a girl dressed in a sea-foam green summer dress in its place. <>

When the second 'voice' comes forward, Onora hits her knees. Not only is it hard to project like this while trying to pull Johnny's mind out but there's the feel of three different people that she's trying to interact with... and that's not counting those not in Johnny's head. Sensing the seperating of minds, she quickly sends, << Separate them, Sue, now!>> to Invisible Girl.

Jo switches back to ultra speed for some fast thinking. It does not seem like he can do anything to help with Johhny, that means he needs to help contain the danger. Ultra Speed seems insufficient, his only option seems to be to prevent the water from getting this far. His Flask Vision can evaporate a huge amount of water a bit "upstream", preventing it from applying pressure. It seems his best choice. Flying past the dam, Jo picks a point beyond the farthest reach of the ice and spreads his Flash Vision out, seeking to evaporate the water flowing in. If this works right, the steam will also help force back incoming water...

Ben's impact webs manage to protect most of the people who hadn't been able to get out of the immediate area in time from the incoming watery onslaught. But now, the rest of it is up to Bobby. Faster than ever before, Iceman barely manages to make it ahead of the wall of water and push back against it with his icy assault. The river doesn't go down without a fight, though, and it rages fiercely against his frigid blasts, pushing against them with an insane amount of pressure.

How far can Bobby Drake go...?

But as he begins to push himself beyond his limits, farther than he ever realized he could go, his willpower begins to win against the forces of nature itself. The water that impacts the icy dam starts to freeze on contact, and finally, -finally-, the pressure lets up as the water rebounds off of the ice and Jo's Flash Vision instantly vaporizes a sizeable portion of it--and it's a good thing he did, too, because Bobby might not have been able to hold on for long enough against such a massive onslaught if not for that. The Chinese authorities also now rush to Bobby's aid as they see what he's trying to do, spraying his temporary barricade with liquid nitrogen to help keep it cold. It might not do that much, but hey...whatever they possibly can do to help. Inside Sue's force bubble, neither Johnny nor Jericho appear to put up any kind of struggle. Well, Johnny's unconscious, and Jericho...well, he just gazes sadly at Sue as she rushes to Reed's side.

Invisible Girl is just about at Reed's side when Onora calls out to her telepathically, and she pauses to turn and look at her brother and the other man in her force field. She takes a moment to separate them, keeping Jericho suspended and trapped while she brings Johnny to rest near Reed. But that's as far as her attention goes before she's visible again and at Reed's side. She gently pulls the weird helmet from his head. "Reed?"

Breathing hard Scarlet looked at everyone looking around. Climbing back into the Fantasticar he rushed over to spots on the dam that looked shoddy at best. "Cel. I need to know the phrase, 'Children first,' and 'I'll be back!' in the local dialect now." The H.E.R.B.I.E. unit, his personal one, chimed back in with the answer. At the top of his lungs he cried out the words. Parents quickly rushed to Scarlet handing them as many children as the car could carry he cried out, "I'll be back." The vehicle rushed over to the rescue efforts and he handed each one off to the local uniforms with ease. Again the car darted off into the skies, "Children first!" he cried out and took more. A few adults were pushed to the side, they were panicked and he couldn't blame them. "How's the rest of the team doing?" Scarlet asked over the com he was unaware what was up with Reed since the Spider was concentrated on being on Iceman's six.

How far can Bobby Drake go? A lot farther.

Knowing it's a situation where he had to keep pushing or three major cities would be wiped out, he's not letting up. The icy wall grows denser and the freezing process keeps going. It keeps freezing down the river, passing Jo and continuing back towards the dam. A lot of people have told Bobby that he's a lot more powerful than he even knows, that if he ever 'got serious' and stopped hiding behind the jokster attitude, he'd become one of the most powerful forces on Earth. This is a little proof there might be some truth behind it.

Reed's eyes have rolled back in his head. Drying blood can be seen coming from his nose and ears. He groans, signifying he's alive. But he doesnt reply. That is until he hears Ben on the com link. "Ertong di yi." Reed says softly as his eyes roll back into place. One his eyes is filled with blood. "It means 'children first'." he adds as he tries to focus on Sue.

Onora forces herself to her feet. Those two tone blue eyes dart back and forth between where Sue has Johnny and the water. She shifts again, once more into the dragon, in flash of purple and takes to the air. Part of her mind stays linked with Johnny's. What if she failed? What if Jericho destroyed his mind completely before she could... She takes a moment to survey what's going and then makes her way to the other side of the dam. Once there, does the only thing she can think of to staunch the flow quickly, she lands and lays one of her wings against it, hoping the suction will 'adhere' the wing to the break nad stop the water.

Once Jo is sure the ice is thick enough, he slowly releases his Flash Vision, letting the water pressure build slowly. He needs to get the dam repaired, he looks for the officials at the liquid Nitrogen trucks and asks, "Do any of you understand English? I need a supply of building materials...bid enough in volume to fill the cracks in the dam."

Perhaps it is a good thing Reed passed out so he still has his telepathic ear plug, with it he can understand if they answer in any language. The locals watch in awe as Bobby freezes -all- of the water all the way up past the dam, even. It's incredible, the amount of power these mutants have. And they are relieved, too, because he has just averted a disaster of catastrophic proportions. The police and emergency workers manning the liquid N trucks quickly nod to Jo, they don't know much English but they know enough to understand what he needs, and quickly point him toward a nearby construction site. They had been working on an office building, but that could certainly wait. That dam needed fixing -now-, and they don't care if Jo has to dismantle the unfinished building in order to do it.

Meanwhile, Johnny finally stirs from his position in the car near Reed. He groans a little, then bolts up, looking frightened. "Reed!" It turns out, that this entire time, it wasn't that Johnny had been 'asleep' in any form, in fact he had been aware of every bit of everything that had been happening around him, up until the point when Sue knocked him out, just hadn't been able to do anything about it. He's kneeling over Reed's prone form in a flash, hoping and praying that he's going to be all right. A sigh of relief escapes his lips when he sees that his friend isn't dead. "Oh...th-thank god... we need to get him to a hospital. Now. Sue, you can let Jericho go. He's...not going to be trying anything else for a while."

The ice spread slows as it freezes right through the dam and into some of the resevoir. It serves the purpose of not only stopping the flood but providing temporary support for the severely damaged dam. As the threat of the water passes slowly, Iceman slumps. Breathing heavily, he's quiet and just staring at all the frozen scenery. He drops to his knees on his slide, slowly changing back to flesh and blood. When the transformation is done, he's passed out. And falling. Someone might want to catch him.

The dragon shifts forms again, this time into the unicorn. It frees the wing simply by shrinking it and she once more takes to the air. Bobby is caught, taken to the ground and gently lowered on to it. She heals what she can on him if it's needed before lifting into the air again.

A look is cast over to Johnny and his family before her mind reaches out to, of all people, Jericho. <> One more look is given to Sue, Reed and Johnny and then she's making her way further up into the clouds and disappearing from sight.

Then:

Nearly nine thousand meters above sea level, a heavily-modified Lockheed AC-130 gunship flies in international airspace. The aircraft is no doubt being monitored by many within the world's intelligence community, but remains undisturbed despite its heavily-armed configuration. This is perhaps to be expected, considering the type of men who serve as the aircraft's crew.

In the cockpit, two men begin prepping the bird to land on an abandoned offshore rigging platform. It has become a fairly standard, if risky, procedure for the crew. But despite the risks of landing on such a short runway, the pilots are more than happy to continue performing the operation as long as they continue to be exorbitantly paid.

Their employer rewards his men well, but expects feats of competence and heroism from them that border on insane. The missions that Deathstroke the Terminator accepts on behalf of the world's governments are the sort that would only be accepted by men who have adrenal glands larger than their brains.

It is from one such mission that the crew returns. Some of the men are wounded. All are exhausted. All, that is, except for the Terminator himself. He sits apart from the rest of the crew, still wearing his dirtied armor and resting with his arms folded across his chest, staring straight forward as if he were attempting to hatebang the window across from him with his one remaining eye.

But Slade Wilson is distracted from whatever thoughts he is lost in by the pinging of a communicator on his wrist. With a hateful sneer, he looks down at the device, his expression softening only a bit when he sees that he is receiving a call from someone labelled only as 'Wintergreen.'

"Master Wilson, I realize that you and your men are nearly back to base, and I realize that after your last mission they will probably attempt to mutiny if you send them back out without rest, but I think it's vital that you see what's happening in China."

A few taps, a transferred file, a video segment, and all of the blood in Slade Wilson's body seems to stop pulsing.

Now:

Deathstroke's special status as a mercenary without peer has granted him the liberty to do things like violate the airspace of sovereign countries with impunity. Which is why he is standing at the back door of a heavily-modified Lockheed AC-130 making a few last-minute adjustments to his parachute. A light turns green, and the man leaps out of the back of a perfectly good aircraft without a moment's hesitation. Soon, the outline of a billowing black canopy can be seen, closing quickly on a massive hydroelectric dam. Jo has a lot to do and a short time to do it. He carries large quantities of the girders and stone blocks up to the dam, hundreds of tons at a time at the speed his flight ring can carry him. Once he has the girders in place he welds them fast with his Flash vision. After the blocks are fitted together he switches to ultra speed, mixing concrete and mortaring the blocks and metal together. He is doing hundreds of man-hours of work in only minutes...

Yes, the moment Johnny bolted up from unconsciousness, Sue set Jericho down gently nearby. Though, she does pause to give him a VERY warning look. One that all but says aloud, touch her family again and she will not be nearly as kind next time.

Turning to Johnny a quick glance, she nods and then she and Reed are on their way to the closest hospital -- the Fantasticar left behind because Sue doesn't trust it to be fast enough. Bobby's, Onora's, and Jo's efforts might go unmentioned for the moment, but Sue is observant, and she doesn't forget. Later. Right now, she's way too worried about her fiancé to concentrate on much else.

Johnny watches as Sue takes off with Reed to the nearest hospital, then turns toward Bobby. It looks like he's going to be okay, he's just extremely exhausted from the amount of exertion he has just had to put forth. Johnny pulls his friend into Sue's empty Fantasticar pod, then opens a commlink to Ben. "Ben? You alright?" He asks, a sense of urgency in his voice as he also looks around for evidence of Vorpal. He's eager to get the hell out of here, but he wants to make sure everyone is okay before just taking off.

He looks up when he sees the Lockheed pass over them, and a man parachuting out of it. It's Slade...isn't it? Well...he'll let father and son deal with their own issues--thankfully he doesn't have to be caught in the midst of it any more.

As for Jericho, his gaze falls when Sue gives him that warning look. He knows what he's done, and he knows how terrible it was. When the jet passes by above, he turns his eyes upward to see his father parachuting out of the plane, and expects that Deathstroke has finally responded to his son's very public proclamation. Just what that response is, though, remains to be seen.

When the parachute is about a hundred meters above the dam, Deathstroke pulls an Applegate-Fairbairn knife from its horizontal position on his belt and slices the 550 risers leading to his canopy. As the canopy blows away, the brightly-colored mercenary drops straight down nearly a hundred meters, landing in a dramatic three-point stance. He pauses for only a moment, standing up from a fall that would have killed most men as if it simply the thing to do.

"Hot Plate, begin descent immediately and prepare for extraction. I don't plan to be here much longer." The one-eyed assassin talks while walking, discarding the remainder of his parachute. Clearly he's not overly concerned with littering fines.

Nor is he concerned with determining the hows and the whys of the events that have preceded. He is clearly here for one reason only, and having spotted Jericho he makes a swift, but unhurried beeline for his until-recently missing son. As he resheaths the knife his voice can be heard, slightly distorted by the filters in his mask. "I'm here to collect my Father of the Year award."

Ben responded into the com, "Helping out the kids and civies. Worry about your sister and your brother. Then keep me far away from that second guy. If I see him, I'm breaking his arm," Scarlet's voice was low and it cut out as he kept up just trying to be someone that helped out the people.

Invisible Girl finds the nearest hospital to be understandably inundated with injured people, but thankfully, the distinctive outfits she and Reed are wearing are enough for the harried medical staff to take notice. They whisk Reed away, and one nurse tries to check on Sue, but she dismisses the woman and hurries back toward where she left Johnny. She is going to have the worst headache tomorrow, but if Reed's okay, she could honestly not care less.

The locals are very grateful for Ben's help, and many of them keep gushing over him with showers of "Shieh shieh ne, shieh shieh ne (Thank you, thank you)!" And Ultra Boy as well. Johnny nods, glad that Ben is okay. "Sounds good." He starts to fly off in the Fantasticar. "And Ben? Thanks. I'm...I'm sorry that I put you through this. I...I know what it must have been like. And uh...can you make sure Vorpal is alright? The cat guy. I kind of lost track of him. He's probably fine but I just wanted to make sure." And with that, the Fantasticar is off to probably the same hospital Reed is at. Along the way he notices Sue heading back and he flips the comms on again. "Sue, I'm getting Bobby to the hospital. Find Vorpal if you can."

Meanwhile, Jericho watches as his father approaches, feeling angry yet terribly guilty at the same time. He looks away sadly, starting to sign hesitantly. 'Dad...I...'

~Superman has the power of flight. *He* could have just flown home after mission accomplished, you know~

~Oh, stuff a pepper in it...~

From his position, he guesses he is about five hundred kilometers from either Wuhan or Chongqing.

~Of course, you can levitate. But what good is that when a simple breeze can blow you miles off course?~

~#$*(@!~

So far his attempts to communicate had been hilarious. He didn't speak the language, of course, and his very peculiar looks... well, they weren't exactly conducive to long conversations in a place where he was unknown. So he had illusioned himself up the guise of a young man of the area and is currently taking a survey of his position...

~You're going to have to call the JLA for a shuttle, you know. Unless you know someone here who can fly you back. And you don't have any money on you!~

~Yes, because the thing I want to do the most is explain to Batman or Superman why we have one less shuttle...~

~Well, you can always buy a dictionary and just stay in the area...~

Vorpal sighs and looks at his communicator.

Aforementioned communicator helpfully speaks up at the perfect moment. And in Sue's voice no less. "Vorpal? Where are you?"

A quick jerk of Slade's hand is enough to signify that Jericho's part in the conversation is over. It's not in the sign language dictionary, but anyone observing would pick up on the meaning. From there, however, he begins a rapid flurry of hand gestures. The meaning of these is probably lost on nearly everyone present, aside from Slade and his son.

"Not now. I need to get you out of here before the authorities have time to react. I need you to put on this mask and get ready to hang on."

Having delivered his instructions in a relatively stealthy manner, Slade ceases using sign language as he hands Joseph something that looks like a paintball mask from the future. Miniaturized oxygen tanks on either side are apparently meant to keep the wearer conscious during the grueling ordeal that is about to take place.

Slade's slightly distorted voice can be heard again, communicating with his pilot. "Hot Plate, I'm prepping the Fulton system. I'll be within range in 73 seconds."

Oh god. Sue. Who was also in the league. Oh god.

"Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyesss? I'm... ... ... ... not with the shuttle." Keith says, extremely non-comittally.

"Ohthankgod. Are you okay, Vorpal? I saw the thing fall out of the sky completely on fire." Sue stops within eyeshot of Jericho and the strangely-clad man, having gone invisible again. She's not close enough to hear what either of them has to say, though. And now she has to worry about Vorpal on top of Reed and Johnny and Bobby.

Joseph was about to continue, but Slade appears to be in a hurry. Right now isn't the time for this sort of conversation. He gulps a little, and nods before complying and putting on the mask. Knowing his father, he's probably preparing to make a very quick, very stealthy escape that a normal person would surely not be able to withstand.

What's more, it's not the authorities the two of them ought to be worried about...because the JLA are bound to be after him, now, given the publicity of what had just transpired.

Also, Keith is soon going to have much more to worry about than the wrath of Batman and the rest of the JLA over the crashed shuttle. A group of cameramen and journalists can be seen stampeding his way, with the intention of bombarding him with questions about what the hell just happened...

"... yeah, I wasn't in it if that's what you mean. I sort of.. kind of... yeah. I'm ... somewhere to the west of the dam. There was this vicious breeze and.. um.. blew me away. Is... how is Johnny?" Keith asks, looking around.

There are some people looking at him with a 'why are you talking to yourself?' kind of look.

Invisible Girl keeps watching the two men, making sure they're not about to do anything else that will earn them both a stern talking-to, then answers Vorpal over the comm. "They're on their way to the hospital. Maybe I can just..." The connection crackles and cuts out a couple of times. "Got it. I think I have an idea where you are. Do you want me to go get you, or are you going to call up to the Watchtower for them to beam you back up?"

Slow death or fast death? Cake or Death? Keith thought about this for a second, and thought that delaying the inevitable seemed pretty good just about now. "...could you come get me? Pretty please? I think people are getting suspicious about me..." he looks at a particularly curious woman and waves at her with a grin. This does nothing to improve her staring at the strange man who seems to be talking to the air without an earphone or anything of the like-- something he had forgotten to include in his illusion.

At the woman's reaction, the Cheshire decides to drop the illusion as he sighs. He becomes his very purple self, "Look, ma'am, I'm just--"

And that's when the woman screams and runs off, dropping her bags on the ground. Keith cannot understand what it is that she's saying, but people are suddenly turning to look at him and pointing. "OH holy macademia..." Keith sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. "Smooth move, O'Neil."

Smooth move indeed, because now, a group of media workers are now rushing over to him and bombarding him with questions about the dam incident, and filming him and taking pictures, and all that. That poor Chesire...

It takes Slade only a few seconds to strap a harness around Joseph's torso, and it takes even less time to clip that harness to his own.

The roar of a low-flying AC-130's engines becomes steadily louder as Slade fiddles with a knob on the front of his armor. A seam in his pack bursts open as a rapidly-inflating baloon forces its way out and begins rapidly ascending. In a matter of seconds, the balloon is fully inflated, and floating up in the air above Slade, attached by a thin metal cable.

"Skyhook deployed. Ready for pickup." Slade places an arm around the younger man's waist just before the the aircraft flies directly over them, 'hooking' onto the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system and yanking the pair up into the air behind the quickly departing aircraft. As soon as they are at a safe altitude to open the rear door, the crew begins pulling in the two men with the winch.

And he does not speak the language. Not one dot of it, so the young man who has always been extremely uncomfortable about what he looks like to the public is now... well, the center of attention, so to speak. With visible anxiety, he latches unto the first thing that comes to his mind, "Er... well.. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Wuhan, and therefore I say... "Ich bin ein Wuhan...".... no, wait, that's not right..." The Cheshire cat rubs his forehead and just... grins.

Invisible Girl startles as the two men are so abruptly yanked away, but before she has time to really react, she hears the commotion over Vorpal's commlink. Ohcrap. She zooms in the direction the subtle display Reed built into her left glove says Vorpal's signal is originating from, hopeing she gets there before he's mobbed. Not that she has any chance of actually helping talk the reporters down -- she's pretty sure that what she's heard second-hand from her fellow volunteers about that Ni Hao, Kai Lan show really won't be of any use.

Yep, she's too late. Vorpal has already been mobbed by reporters. Most of them are shouting at him in Chinese, but some of them are using English. "You helped protect the citizens of Wuhan, which would have been the first city to be hit by the floods! What happened out there? Has the Torch gone mad? Are we really safe now? We saw you go down in that flaming aircraft, how did you get out?!"

Jericho is whisked up into the air with Slade, and the two of them are pulled up on board the Lockheed. It's not long before Deathstroke and his crew have left the scene. Where are they headed? Well only time will tell.

Invisible Girl arrives in time to see the mob scene. She's used to that kind of thing, and she knows Vorpal /isn't/. So, as much as she wants to get back to Reed, she drops in behind the purple cat invisibly, then puts a hand on his shoulder as she becomes visible. "Thank you, everyone, but I'm afraid we need to be going.'

"Everybody... is safe. The situation is under control. Do not worry, all statements will be coming out soon! But you are safe!" Keith says, trying to be heard over the din and at least answer the reporters who used English. And then Sue comes to his aid like the Blue Fairy in the middle of Pinocchio! "Oh thank heavens, Sue!" Keith whispers.

The din increases in volume as Sue appears and Vorpal guarantees that they're safe. Sue will just have to pull Keith away from them and fly away before they shut up. We all know how reporters are.

It takes some doing, but Sue finally gets Keith away from the reporters, and she rushes back toward the hospital with him in tow. Knowing Reed, he'll refuse to stay there, and she'd really rather be the one to 'drive' everyone home than letting Reed try.