2013-02-13 Die Hard (With A Babysitter)

It was difficult to fight crime as a single parent. It must be! Being unable to go out and help your friends and defend the innocent when a babysitter can't be found. Luckily for Roy, that's usually not a problem. Until his regular nanny calls in sick on him. But good knews, she knows this GREAT young girl who can babysit for tonight, doesn't charge much as long as she can raid the fridge, responsible, nice... what could go wrong?

That's what one might ask themselves when one opens the door to a wide-smiling Courtney Whitmore. The girl sporting the braces and wearing the long-sleeved, horizontal-striped green shirt, tan jeans, and a brown purse had seemed normal enough for a teenager. Introduced herself with a handshake, asked about emergency numbers and what the bed time was and what was allowed for dinner or a before-bed snack. Surely she'd be the perfect babysitter for Lian, and if not, hey, it was only for one night!

And she'd apparently shown up just in the nick of time, because it was all over the police scanners: armed gunmen were assailing and taking over a highrise company tower with the intent of draining all the credit-card information from its servers! Police and SWAT were on-scene but unable to deal with the situation due to some kind of 'invincible rock monster' cohorting with the two-dozen or so armed men (and two women) in full body armor with military-grade firepower. They'd already fired a rocket into a SWAT van and killed one and injured three officers. Police were forced to keep their distance.

Luckily, there were no hostages, save the company regional manager who nobody liked anyway, reported up there on the ninety-eighth floor where the crooks had taken over. The building had already been evacuated.

But back across town...

"So, Lian! Now that your dad's gone, why don't we bust out the icecream and see what's on FX?"

No, Kate Bishop was not at the apartment visiting Lian.

Nor is she waiting for the all clear to go up that building from anyone.

In fact, Kate Bishop, as far as anyone who just knows her as Kate Bishop, is not exactly anywhere to be found.

Hawkeye on the other hand...

Well, up on one of the news choppers that has arrived, and is circling the building in question, there is a passenger. One that can not be heard since the only 'official' passenger is the camera man, who almost appears to be going out of his way to just film the building, and not who's in the vehicle with him and the pilot. A passenger, who somehow managed to bribe the pilot to fly very, very low, and pass over the roof of the building. That way...

Yes, that's right, the female archer jumps. From the helicopter, as it's maybe six feet from the roof top. That is before she tries to find the entrance inside of it. And all the while, the camera on that chopper just looks the other way.

Domino's getting tired of this. Bad enough that she took a bullet through the chest only a day or two ago (frankly she's lost track of time,) then she had to go and make it harder on herself by leaving the facility at Westchester only to end up in the middle of New York City, get -further- treatment, black out for several hours, then try to drive herself -back- to Westchester. What she does doesn't always make sense to those around her. Maybe that's part of why she rarely keeps anyone else around.

Police have the street blocked off. There's a flaming wreck of what looks an awful lot like the victim of an RPG attack. With a heavy breath she dodges her blacked out BMW through stalled traffic and finds somewhere to park, drops a couple of pills into her mouth, then washes them down with a gulp--make that two gulps--of the strongest drink that she has on hand.

"Must be my lucky frickin' day."

Stepping out with a bit of care, the trenchcoat-covered albino moves to the back of her car and pops the trunk, sorting through the pile of illegal ordnance she's still got tucked away back there. Grenade launcher? Civilians, collateral damage. Five millimeter? May lack the required punch. Seven? Probably going to pull some of her fresh stitches out, but it's much more likely to do the job... Screw it, bigger is better. She tucks the stubby battle rifle underneath an arm and closes the trunk, rolling her shoulders with a grimace as she looks to the office building. Bullet wound be damned, grumbling "Time to remind these kids how to do their jobs. Again..."

Timing aside, luck is still with her. The police are way too busy with the situation to pay attention to one woman walking around the perimeter, finding an entry point into the building for herself.

Not having much of a choice about babysitters, given the emergency situations, Roy doesn't even have enough time to give Courtney a grilling. Instead, he kisses Lian, prompting a squeak of protest and a shove of hand to his face. "Daddy you were supposed to -shave-!" she squeaks, but the archer leaves her with a laugh, and a final warning to Courtney.

The young girl regards the ice cream offer with a wary look, but the offer of ice cream cannot be overcome, and a smile replaces the wary shy look. "Okay," she declares, deciding that anyone who can offer ice cream can't be that bad, despite what Daddy said about ice cream and strangers!

Arsenal, meanwhile, has to park the Arsecycle. "Well damn," he declares, before hoofing it the rest of the way on foot. There was a flash of black, and then Arsenal grins. Oh yeah, he recognized -that- form. And well, what the hey, it was always more fun working with -that- lady.

"Oi, Domino," Arsenal says, as he catches up. "Need a hand?"

There's a lone gunman out patrolling the rooftop, a six-foot Belgian guy smoking a cigar in full tactical gear. Grenades are strapped to his bandolero and he's carrying an assault rifle, a sidearm, and not one, but TWO knives. He's even got goggles that can go from telescopic to nightvision to infrared! This guy is DECKED OUT and ready for stuff to go down, his hand near the two-way radio on his belt as he begins moving towards Kate's side of the roof to investigate that low-flying chopper and watch for police insertions, his feet crunching across the pebbles on the roof.

If he only knew...

Roy and Domino have a much easier time entering: there are no bad guys on the first floor. That's where all the cops were, so she only has to dodge the building's security features, such as locked doors, cameras, alarms, that kind of thing. Probably a piece of cake in a corporate high-rise for an experienced pros like them. Even the elevators are functioning! Though they have cameras in them.

The men on the third-to-top floor were patrolling in twos by the windows, running a kind of grid system to keep the floor secure. Their hackers hole up in an office to complete their illegal transactions. The rest of them are busy making a veritable fort out of the cubicles and desks on this floor, between the glass walls of the rooms.

And way back in Roy's apartment, Courtney has already dug out the Rocky Road and has whatever PG-13 movie is on TV at the moment playing. That is, until her JLA emergency communicator begins to go off. Immediately the blonde leaps off the couch, swallowing her mouthful of icecream so fast she gets brainfreeze, half-stumbles to her purse and pulls out her cosmic rod. It's already extended and her outfit replaced by Stargirl's getup as she's turning towards the window!

And then stops and looks back at Lian. "Aw... crud. Rrrgh!" She's close to pulling out her hair, reading the message coming across her comm device, before she finally turns towards the younger girl with a bright, winning, can-do-no-wrong smile. "Hey, wanna go see a real, live super-battle? I'll let you flyyyyyy~"

And as she lands, Kate rolls. Unfortunately, before she can even find that door, as she starts to get up, her head snaps about as she /thinks/ she notices a movement. It's not like she can hear the crunch of the rocks, not over the roar of the chopper as it moves away, but that movement...

It's enough that her bow is out, an arrow is prepare, and even fired in the first open area near where that movement appears to come from.

But what kind of arrow is it? For now a simple, basic pointed arrow. Not even really a sharp, but definitely not a trick arrow. But still one meant to penetrate armor. In theory anyways.

Yeah, about that whole 'luck' thing? Apparently it just flatlined for Domino. She stops short on her next step, the back of her shoulders instantly tensing as she hears a voice calling out to her. -That- voice. Harper's voice. Man, today just keeps getting better.

"Sure, you can move my car for me. I'm illegally parked."

Once Roy lands, getting rid of him isn't an easy thing to do. He's got crossbows. Silent approach it is. Without another word she pulls the bulky carbine suppressor out from her coat and drops it onto the muzzle, locking it into place before tucking the weapon out of sight once more. That should buy them a little time once the shooting starts, at least. Of course, they still need to get past the cops on the lower level.

A meaningful stare is passed back to Arsenal. "I'm not getting rid of you, am I?"

She already knows the answer, grabbing him by the bicep and hauling him along. "Stick close, keep your mouth shut." Time to let her luck work for them both.

Cops never see them passing through. Security cameras just happen to be looking the wrong way as they near. Elevators are known deathtraps in firefights so she takes them to the stairs. Which sucks for her. A lot. Still, it beats the alternative.

"You're like a bad rerun, kid. Won't die a quiet death, won't disappear."

Hey look, the door from the fire escape isn't locked. Maintenance must have been working here recently. With a nonchalant motion she holds the door and motions Roy on through. "Geeky costumes first."

Lian Harper watches the ongoing changing with wide eyes and a clap of her hands. "Wow... are you a Power Ranger?" she asks. "CoLiska2 (talk)oool." It grows even wider. "Yeah! I was in one before, but Daddy said never again." She frowns, and tilts her head as she considers her daddy's admonishment for all of one minute, before breaking into a crooked half-grin. "Yaaay! Do I need to get changed?" she asks, already off the sofa. Although she was already closing the ground towards Courtney with speed that the Flash might envy.

"Nice to see you too, lady," Roy says, offering a crooked half-grin towards Domino. "You know you love me," he says in an almost sing-song mocking fashion, although the crossbow and focused eyes towards the target betrays the seriousness with which he takes this. There's a slight bow. "Why thank you, missus Domino," he says, before sweeping into the building with alarcity. Oh, sure he knew he was going to be the first person shot, but hey... no guts, no glory.

The male is just coming around the corner formed by some conduit piping and a roof-top AC when the arrow strikes, taking him in the lower-right chest. It penetrates the tactical kevlar armor that was meant to stop bullets, not edged-projectiles. He grunts and stumble-falls back around the corner, reaching for his radio to try to wheeze out a warning to his comrades below. But it's kind of hard to talk with a punctured lung.

Then the pebbles start to shift underfoot, some from near Kate's position, beginning to draw towards each other, starting to coalesce into a rapidly-growing and very large mound of small rocks and pebbles near the center of the roof!

Domino and Roy encounter no resistance on the lower levels once they're past the cops. Taking the stairs, though? Ouch! They have a ninety-story climb ahead of them unimpeded by anything save exhaustion. They'll probably both have really, really buff legs by the time they reach the top.

But luck can't hold out forever! There's someone watching the fire escape and the stairs on the ninety-seventh floor, another couple of gun-toting, body-armor-wearing hoodlums toting just as much in the way of firepower as the one Kate was dealing with on the roof. The largest difference here is that they're watching a much smaller area and they're much closer to the rest of their team.

"Naw, I'm *STARGIRL*, greatest member of the Justice League of America in the whole world!" But she just scoops up the dark-haired girl in the crook of her arm as she nudges open a window and leaps out of it. "No need to change, we won't even get you smudged!" Immediately both Courtney and Lian are enveloped by glowing orange energy as they sweep across the sky. Though she doesn't actually have to touch the younger girl to make her fly, she still holds her hand as they soar through the air side-by-side like some teenaged hero and her smaller sidekick.

"But just one rule: You have to hide when I tell you to, okay?" Considering how readily Lian agreed to go along, Courtney should really have a better appreciation for the girl's mischeviousness than to expect THAT to stick.

And as that radio is reached for, there's a second arrow that gets reached for and fired in a snap shot. Only this one is a sharp, and may even be a bit better aimed. In fact, as Hawkeye fires it, she aims at the radio, or at least at the hand reaching for it.

Of course with her attention locked on the guy, she is momentarily distracted to a point where she doesn't notice the rocks doing what ever they're doing.

And of course with her so high up, she also doesn't know about the potential help down below either.

Looking up at the flights and flights of stairs, Roy darts a -look- at Domino. "Change of plans," he says, brushing past her on the way out. There was a quick glance, and then he weaves his way past the elevator shaft, trusting in both knowing where the blindspots of the cameras were, and Domino's luck. Forcing the elevator doors open, he peers up into the darkness. "Okay," he says, as he pockets his crossbow, pulls his bow off his back, and pulls out an grapple arrow. "Gonna have to play hopscotch here, but we'll get up there faster this way.

Firing the arrow where he thinks it'll hook, Roy grabs ahold of Domino by the waist. "Hey, how about a kiss for luck?" he grins, referencing Star Wars. Not that he'll wait for the answer, as he pushes the button, to go -up-.

Okay, so she should have thought about that before. Domino's still tripping on morphine and a cocktail of antibiotics. And other assorted pain meds. And alcohol. Yeah, sometimes she still misses The Obvious. "Go to Hell," she automatically tells Harper before they take off and avoid most of those nasty stairs.

Blind determination can have its faults. Like overlooking smart shortcuts. It sure is fortunate that Arsenal's here, isn't it?

When the two finally get to where they need to be there's only so many options for hiding, taking cover, all of that happy fun survival stuff. Dom takes one side and trusts Arsenal to take the other, they can converge somewhere at the center point from there. Heavy-hitting thirty caliber rounds snap out of her stubby carbine, the suppressor hiding much of the report and all of the flash without silencing the supersonic *snap* of bullets punching holes through the sound barrier. It's not ideal, but what ever truly is? Their body armor shouldn't stand a chance.

The arrow catches the hand right as it grabs the radio, and goes through it, the circuitry, and pins both to the crooks leg! Yeah, he's out for the count, having trouble breathing, and now with one arm immobilized, he most lies there making spastic, painful-looking jerks which might be an attempt to crawl to safety.

But those rocks continue to form, clacking noisily against each other, a gradual human shape that begins to stand eight feet tall. There's no facial features other than two indentations where eyes should be, no fingers, no toes, just solid clumps of rock which make those up. Suddenly green lights appear where the eyes should be and that rocky face splits in two as a gravelly, deep voice rumbles.

"Ah ha haaaaaa, yooooo should not have cooooome heeeeeere, Arroweeeeeeette..." And then the rock monster begins to lurch towards Hawkeye!

Roy's grapple-gun makes travel super-easy, especially because there's no cameras in the elevator shafts. So the only danger comes from getting hit by the moving elevators themselves, which, given the lack of people in the building, they're not. This wasn't CIA headquarters, so there's no lasers or motion sensors or such to worry about.

When the elevator doors pop open without so much as a countdown or helpful *TING* of arrival, the crooks guarding it are caught entirely offguard. There were four of them, each with fully-automatic weapons, but they were talking amongst themselves and most of them were facing the wrong way. The one who DID notice their arrival starts to point and the others started to turn about the same time Domino opens fire on them.

The bullets pierce right through armor like hollowpoints thorugh paper, taking the four down with barely any time to groan in the spray of bullets and, probably, crossbow bolts. But this does alert the rest of the goons on the floor who begin to take cover and return fire from their makeshift cubicle-desk barriers, screaming for the hackers to 'hurry the hell up'.

And that's about the time Courtney lands quiet-like with Lian on the edge of the roof. She puts the little girl down between a pair of large AC machines, motioning with her hand to keep down. "Stay here until I come get you, okay?" And then Stargirl is leaping up atop one of those machines, shouting right at the rock-monster menacing Kate.

"HEY UGLY! Didn't I throw your brother in jail already?" The blast from her staff knocks a few stones loose from one of Rocky's legs, making him stumble as rock-fists reach for Hawkeye with a look of dumb-founded surprise on its pebble-lined features.

"Sorry." is snapped at who... What ever that rock person... creature... Monster(?) is as the purple clad archer reaches into her quiver for something special. Not an arrow. But something else.

But of course before she even gets a chance to use it, Stargirl appears and blasts the rock... Thing (not Ben Grimm though!). Thus instead of doing what she was going to do, Kate leaps to the side, and tries to... Taser it?

"Arrowette is someone else! I'm Hawkeye! Remember that!"

"All off the Arsenal elevator express," Roy begins, before Domino is off. The quips fade away, as Arsenal covers the other side, crossbow bolts firing. Less lethal than Domino, Arsenal was no less effective in disrupting and taking down his foes, finding holes in the body armor that would leave them unable to shoot, finishing the job off with hard punches.

The shouts draws Roy's attention, followed by a grin. Oh, stop them fast, eh? Well, that should be easy. Pulling out an arrow, Roy takes aim... and fires his fire arrow.

A trashbasket explodes in flames. Relatively minor, all things told... except that he'd set off a fire... and hopefully, the sprinklers. And save himself the hassle of fighting to get to the hackers.

Lian stays put for all of a minute, watching everything from her posture, making puncha-puncha motions. "Get 'im, Stargirl!"

Armed goons. Important data on those computers. Full auto fire. Overpenetration concerns from Dom's carbine. Not very good odds for clean kills and not losing any of that data. With a barely restrained hiss of pain Domino takes cover behind a desk, flinching slightly as the glass panel behind her shatters and rains down around her.

"Watch your shots, Arsenal! Clean only!"

She thumbs the fire selector to semi-auto then fishes around for a flashbang grenade, only then realizing with a sense of dread that she left much of her additional gear behind, what with the doctor visit and all.

"-Damnit,-" she seethes. "You got any trick bolts on ya?" she asks while bringing the carbine up and taking a shot that, by anyone else's standards, would be insanely awkward. For her, it's just another legit tactic. From across the office there's a "GHK!" sound as another baddie hits the floor.

"Buy us a few seconds, if you can!"

Through that chemical haze sweeping through her system she can feel the gradual but steady press of fresh blood around her wounds. The odds of her blacking out before they clear these fools out is low, but she still has a lot of distance to cover afterward. Every shot produces more recoil, more stress on her injuries. This albino's on the clock.

And now the sprinkler system is kicking in. "..Thanks."

"Rraaaagh!?" The creature apparently does not like being blasted. Kate's taser seems to have little effect, as its body dissipates the electricity before it can do much more than cause a few pebbles to fall off. But that leg, with the missing chunk, well, the rocks begin to fly right back towards the pebble-monster and reform the missing part of its calf as it lets off a deep rumble of laughter, regaining its feet, holding its stomach like some kind of Rock-Santa. "Hawwwwwkeyyyyye. Iiiiiiii will teeeeeeell your friiiiiends when yoooooo are deeeeeead."

"Well... crap." Courtney offers, before flashing a smile at Lian and then leaping off of the AC duct. She handspring-cartwheel-somersaults right to the baddie, only to lay flat and go into a baseball slide between his legs as he bends over to grab her. She uses her staff, horizonally holding it behind her, as a trip bar, pulling and struggling and straining with all her superstrength as she comes up... and manages to trip the goon enough that he goes down to one knee.

"You gotta way to break this guy apart or somethin'? 'Cause I think I got an idea!"

The fire in the trashcan works like a charm, and its only a few seconds before the sprinklers detect the heat and the alarms notice the smoke. There's a second where everything seems to hold its breath... and then it starts raining indoors. Computers and electronic devices short-circuit, data is lost, hacking is stopped, judging by the number of curses from the bad guy side of the line.

"Ya shouldn't'a done that, pal! Now we gotta kill ya for FREE! And that just REALLY PISSES US OFF!" The amount of firing in Domino and Roy's direction almost doubles as those guarding the hackers abandon them to start shooting at the duo that had just ruined their payday.

To be honest, the taser wasn't expected to do much. At least on a 'normal' setting. But with Stargirl there, and her blasting like that, it meant that Kate had a moment to test something before going all out, thus she did what she did.

"Already on it." is said as Kate reveals what she was actually after. A /sall/ brick of C4, or at least something that looks a little like C4 at first glance, one that's small enough it can be hidden in her almost closed fist. There's an attached timer to that 'block' as well. One that appears to be set for five seconds.

Thus as the purple clad archer scrambles up, onto her feet, she tries to plant that on the rock guy, before ducking for cover again. A nd once planted, the timer automatically starts.

"Cover!"

Now -Kate- gets a cheer from Lian too. "YAY! Goooo, Hawkeye!" Lian calls out, clapping her hands together.

Roy, meanwhile, ducks around a corner, frowning. "Hey! Domino! They sound -just- like you after a fubar mission! What ya got to say about that? Wait, nevermind, just hang tight, I'll get them set up, then you can mow them down!" he calls out, as he pulls out an explosive arrow. There's a brief pause, and an exhalation of breath, as Roy checks his mental memory of exactly where the glass walls were when he looked, and where these people were likely to come to when they came a-flying out. And then Arsenal spins around the corner, aims, and fires at the glass walls, aiming to send glass shattering and flying and completely disrupting the path of the mercenaries.

Sprinkler systems. Computers. Electricity. -Sensitive data.- "I am -not- taking any of the blame for this, Arsenal," Domino reviles as the artificial rain sticks her wirey hair to her skull.

Well, if she doesn't have to worry about collateral damage so much anymore...

The rifle is set aside, switching out for her matched sidearms. "Try not to hit me," she tells Harper through a clenched jaw. Then again, he's readying what sure looks like an explosive arrow, there. Lots of glass, lots of baddies. Lots of luck.

Push it.

The woman rolls out from behind her cover and outright -launches- herself toward the cluster of enemies, arms lashing out and pistols snapping to and fro as she goes utterly ballistic in the sort of sense that only those with a deathwish or the stupidly fortunate can get away with. As some enemies drop from glass or bullets others try to take shots back at her, which results in a few injuries to their own buddies, a jammed weapon or two, and a well-placed ricochet that shreds the crap out of one of the hacker's laptops.

A moment later and she's back behind cover somewhere else in the room, the sprikler drops hissing lightly as they fall upon the smoking compensators of her sidearms. For as much crap as she gives Roy, these two seem to compliment one another alarmingly well in combat.

The rock-beast is slow and cumbersome, so Kate is easily able to work her way around it and stick something on it somewhere where it can't easily reach. The counter is ticking, and Stargirl is ready to throw up a forcefield- OH DAMN!

"Lian!" Courtney shrieks, hopping forward into a roll, using a hand right on rock-man's head to spring over him and back to the other side, allowing her staff to help her defy gravity to take her back to the little girl's location, or at least as close to it as she can get in five seconds. Her staff points up like she planned to shoot someone with it, but instead pops up the largest, strongest forcefield she can muster up as the blast goes off. Rocks turn into shrapnel, but bounce harmlessly off of the orange-yellow cosmic energy shield, protecting both herself and her charge from harm.

"...Whew." But they can't relax yet, because almost immediately the rocks and pebbles that used to be the stone giant begin to tremble and head back for what's left of the center mass! The forcefield changes shape, becoming longer, narrower, and parallel to Courtney's staff rather than perpendicular. She uses it like an extended hockey stick to sweep a large chunk of the rocks right off of one side of the roof, then clears out another section right towards the other, and finall slams a dome of energy right over what's left.

By the time he's re-formed, Rocky is only a third the size he used to be, banging uselessly at the containment field, his deep, gravely voice now high-pitched and squeaky. "Hey, lemme outta here! C'mon!"

The exploding arrow showers the floor with little glass bits and pieces of wood and metal as the would-be robbers duck and cover and try not to get pelted with the hot and/or sharp debris. The follow-up by Domino is equally, if not more so, devastating, taking out one armored thug after another. Luck indeed smiles down as crooks find themselves unable to retaliate or in a bad position to do so and instead catch bullets themselves. There's bodies all over the floor by the time she's done, and the sound of gunfire receeds.

And does not pick back up. "O-Okay! I-I'm coming out!" There's a clatter as a few guns are tossed to the ground, followed by the appearance of six raised hands as two men and one woman step out from behind cover. "We're giving up, don't shoot us!" He pleads.

Back on the roof, Courtney can't help but feel the vibrations of another explosion beneath them, or hear the excessive gunfire. She pokes a finger right at Lian's nose. "Wait here while I go look, okay?"

The next thing somebody from inside would see? An upside-down masked blonde head of hear peering into the window of the ninety-eighth floor as Courtney hangs upside down from her knees from her levitating staff. "Wow, looks pretty quiet..."

It is only after the blast goes off that a certain cheer from a few seconds ago crash into what Stargirl shouted in Hawkeyes head. And as it does though she has a look of pure terror cross her face as her head snaps around to look right at the little girl.

"Roy is gonna be sooo pissed." is all she can mutter, before she hrms and glances at the trapped Rock guy.

"You got him?" is asked of Star as Kate tries to move towards her some-time-allies daughter to make sure she's all right.

"Or do you want a little something that could reduce him to a pile of /dust/?"

And yes, that last bit is said slightly louder with extra emphasis, as if to make sure he hears it.

"You know, Dom, I like it better when they surrender. Saves me a lot of headaches," Roy remarks as he pulls another arrow. Motioning for the trio to get together, Roy fires, leaving the three in a nice tight package. "What should we do with them?" he asks, before pausing as he sees someone's hair dangling down, followed by a masked face.

Instantly, an arrow is out and aimed at the window. Who... what.. was that a -Titan-?

Lian, meanwhile, is all too eager to hop down off the air conditioning units, and run towards Hawkeye. Oh she was -thrilled- to see Kate, at least, probably because she was the only other black-haired archer there was, and was therefore -hope- for her. "Hawkeye!"

"And adds to mine," Dom almost growls back to Arsenal.

Ow. Ooooow. With the sound of people disarming she reveals herself once more, sidearms snapping up to cover the trio even after they get all neatly bundled up. The shared stunt between Roy and herself worked, but it doesn't account for the explosion that happened further up...

An instant later one of her guns snaps around toward the window where an inverted head reveals itself. (-Hero,- Domino.) The raised weapon doesn't stay there for long, returning to its place upon the Troublesome Three. The question is still directed at Stargirl, however. "Now who the hell are -you?-" Furthermore, "Everyone okay up there?" 'There' being where that other explosion went off.

Back to Roy's question? "Throw 'em in the elevator and send 'em all to ground. The place is already packed to the brim with Blue."

"No, no!" Courtney calls out from her position dangling over the side of the building. "He's fine, we don't gotta kill him! They have a meta-human response unit right downstairs, saw 'em on the way in." Besides, Stargirl was a True-Blue superhero, so killing was always right out.

But as Courtney's looking in, the bad guys are being trussed up, and then there's an ARROW and a GUN pointing right at her face! She rears back, then moves her head forward again, squinting, before her eyes go big as saucers and her mouth falls open. "MISTER /HARPER/!?" And just like that, the blonde-haired head is /gone/ like a ghost, not even answering Domino's question through the glass!

Courtney's back on the roof in a blink, running for Lian and Kate, grabbing for Lian's hand. "Hey, you know each other! Great! Li, time to go /home/. FAST! Before your dad finds out!" She turns a small, apologetic smile as she tries to snatch the young girl up, ready to take her into the air. "Hawkeye, nice to meet you! Please don't tell Mister Harper!"

Soaring through the sky like a pair of yellow comets, Courtney pulls out all the stops to get the girl she was supposed to be sitting back home. They're back in through the same window they left, though Stargirl has to have Lian remind her what the building looks like. As she's setting Lian, down, collapsing her staff and changing back into her normal-high-school-girl attire, the blonde-haired teenager grabs Lian by the hands and crouches down to look her in the face.

"Please, please, pleeeeeease keep this a secret from your dad and you can stay up all the way until he gets home and eat whatever you want until you burst!"

Back over in the building, the meta-human response team arrive there just about the same time Courtney's forcefield fizzles out to slap the restraining devices on Rocky Jr. The three surviving and uninjured mooks are rounded up, as are any that are still breathing. Of course, by the time the cops get there and storm the place, the trio of heroes may very well be long gone!

And as Stargirl flies off...

As Rocky Jr. is taken care of...

Hawkeye starts to reach for her phone, and starts to dial a number. That is before she speaks into it.

"It's me. We might need to keep an eye on the JLA. After what one of them did here, they might end up with publicity issues sooner rather than later."

Who is she calling? Why is she saying this? It's a story for another time! But it's probably a /good/ thing no one managed to get any pictures of a member of The JLA bringing a kid to a superhuman battle on a rooftop.

Good thing for Stargirl that the window and the distance makes her question unhearable! Roy blinks as the blonde girl disappears upstairs, and tilts his head to Domino, shrugging. As the meta-human response team arrives, and gathers up, Roy grins at Domino. "We've got to stop meeting like this. Next time, just call me, yeah?" he asks, winking and holding a hand mimicking a phone to the side of his head.

Domino grimaces slightly, both from the growing pain and that both she and her guns are now -sopping wet,- no thanks to her 'buddy.'

"Not gonna happen, kiddo," she automatically replies while holstering the pistols and retrieving the rifle. She'll find her own way out, thank you.

And as Hawkeye just happens to make her way through the building, she pauses as she notices Roy and the wet female merc he's with.

"...Agent Harper, if you're gonna do that to a poor woman, you should at least take her out on a date first. If need be, I'll spring for the champagne, expensive chocolates, and the honeymoon suite so you can get it out of your systems."

And with that said, she up and starts walking away, muttering something under her breath about a 'wet t-shirt contest'?!?

"...HAWKEYEEEEEEE!..."

(Serenity now...)