2012-07-12 Wall Street Rumble

Wall Street, mid-afternoon, lots of people. Cars are sluggishly chugging down through traffic-clogged streets, people are leaving buildings to go on lunch, others are entering on business. There's a large number of people milling on the streets today, holding signs, shouting, rar rar rar 1, rar rar rar sucking the teat of America dry, etcetera. Most of them are clustered around the larger buildings, a few police hanging around to keep them from getting out of control.

Then things take a different turn. The sound of screams and gasps of surprise fills the air, and the sight is visible from several miles away. The windows of the building most of the people are congregating in front of shatter, a rain of glass that reaches from the first floor all the way to nearly the top of the building. After the initial crack there's a second sound, a shrill, high-pitched scream from somewhere in the building. Definitely not human.

I'd just like to say it right now: Angela didn't do it! In fact, feeding her fears was the LAST thing on the young villain's mind. She was out shopping, enjoying the attention of flashing money and having the sales people flocking to her. Means she wasn't left alone, ever. But the shrill scream and expoding glass catches her attention and like most people she stops to gawk. Unlike most people, a faint grin is starting to form on her face as surprise might soon turn to fear.

Supergirl's taking a spin over Manhatten after completing some training at the Themyscrian Embassy. Metropolis might be her favorite city and her home, but the Big Apple runs a close second. The screams catch her attention and Kara starts heading towards the disturbance...then the high-pitched scream hit her and Supergirl hovers in mid-air, wincing at the pain as her super-sensitive ears pick up the noise without her filtering it.

Fear isn't far behind. Especially when bodies start to go flying out the window. For, to be precise. Two are well-dressed businessmen, hurled from the top of the building. The third is a man dressed in some weird exo-skeleton of metal, another businessman slung over his shoulder. The man in the exoskeleton, unlike the other two, seems to actually have wanted to jump. He's plummeting toward the ground, metal feet braced for impact.

"Christ. You don't think this is a little overboard? Just a little?" The voice comes from behind Angela, where a black sedan is parked at the curb. Three men stand in front of it, business-casual, unobtrusive for the most part. Their leader is a thin, tall gentleman speaking on the phone. "Yeah, I know, but seriously-Fine, fine." Click, phone off. Then he does something weird. He raises a hand, and as if on cue the throng of protesters where the metal man is going to land suddenly rush forward and literally tackle the startled police officers to the ground.

Fear. Angela's eyes flare at the sound she can almost taste in the air. Her eyes gleam and for a moment, nothing happens. Then, instead of Angela, Phobia stands; her body covered with a nightmarish inhuman veinlike skin. Eyes on the rushing protestors, Phobia smiles and blankets the area with nightmarish visions, coaxing the illusions up for each mind she brushes; a personal welcome into their own personal fear-ridden hell.

Supergirl shakes her head, clearing the effects of the noise out. And not a moment too soon! The two men falling uncontrolably are seconds form hitting the ground. Kara flies down, a red and blue blur as the catches the men and flies them to safety. "Stay here," she says to them."Talk to the police and paramedics when they arrive." And then, she flies out to confront the man in the exoskeleton. "I suggest you surrender now. There's enough to do here without getting into a long fight with you..."

The two men Supergirl snatches up are quite thankful, if white-faced in terror. The man in the exoskeleton stares at her for a second, only his eyes visible behind his metal mask. He does not, however, look particularly happy about this. Instead he crouches down, taking a tight grip on his captive, and leaps! Very high, apparently trying to get over her head and away without conflict. Maybe he's heard of her.

"Aaa! What the hell is that!?" Both of the men beside the telepath take notice of Phobia fairly quickly, considering they aren't completely distracted by the mob of protestors. They yammer between themselves a moment in Itallian-accented voices, looking to their superior. The thin man, for his part, winces visibly as the protesters begin to scream and scatter in terror. He breaks contact there, his eyes flashing to the nightmarish figure of Phobia. Then he hits her, a psychic assault akin to a knife being driven into her gut. He's not that strong, but it's enough to get attention.

Phobia's attacks drop in an instant, and she doubles over with a shout of agony, crumpling to her knees. Her hands clutch at her stomach as she turns her demonic-looking glowing slits of eyes upon the telepath. Shaking, Phobia claws at his mind, mouth open and hissing as she does so; seeking the core of his fears. Well, at least the Area-Effect Fear Bomb is gone?

Supergirl flies up after the exoskeleton. She's to a problem in that as long as he has that hostage, she can't do much to counter him phsyically. She flies alongside him, keeping a safe distance. "Why are you doing this? Please put him downa nd we can talk about this...."

The exoskeleton man comes down on a building across the street, feet making small indents in the roof. The fact that Supergirl is still following seems fairly irksome, so he does as she asks. The business man is dropped, and he faces her again. So he can scream at her. The screech is a wide cone of sound, very unpleasant, enough to do damage to a human.

Down below, its snakes. Snakes, apparently, are what the telepath is afraid of. When visions of serpents flash into his head he shrieks, making a valiant effort to shield himself from the assault. He stumbles back, collapsing against the car behind him. The other two men lunge forward after that, seeking to pummel the nightmare back, at least enough to give their boss some room.

At least said snakes aren't on a plane. With years of self-defense under her belt, Phobia keeps her mind buried in the telepath's, burrowing into his mind, feasting off his fright and fears to sooth her own, knowing that she could kill, and enjoying it. She's ducking, doding, trying not to get hit, but in revelling in the telepath's mind, her phsycial reactions slow and she takes a solid punch to the gut and drops to her knees. Her attacks stop as she heaves on the ground, stunned and unable to focus for the moment.

The sonic blast forces Supergirl to cover her ears and wince in pain. Kara focuses on blocking out the sound, but she's just as vulnerable as a normal human, just that she can take a lot of pain. So, while trying to keep her ears covered, Supergirl goes on the attack. She inhales sharply then lets go with a long gust of hurricane force wind, tyring to knock the exoskeleton off balance.

Metal man can't sustain the shriek for long, especially when confronted with gale-force wind. The skeleton is sturdy, but not quite built with hurricanes in mind. So it goes skating backward, the man's arms flailing as he tips over, falling onto his back and then smashing into a cooling unit stationed on the room. The way the suit is designed makes getting back to his feet practically impossible, his arms wailing away at the air like a panicked turtle. "Damn you!" It comes out a bit distorted thanks to the mask, but he makes his feelings on this matter crystal clear.

The two men on the street move to press the advantage they have against Phobia, if somewhat hesitantly. They don't get too far. The telepath, with what little sense he has left, croaks out, "Get in the car, you idiots!" And they set about doing that, having to literally toss the man in before the pile into the sedan and attempt to rev it to life and make their getaway while Phobia is down.

Gasping on the street, Phobia looks up as they pile into the sedan. Her arms remain wrapped around her midsection, holding her stomach. She blinks, vision blurry, but pushes her mind at the telepath again. Snakes. How would you feel, dear psychic, if not only was the van filled with the scaly creatures, but you two friends were hiddeous snake-like creatures, hisses and biting, and promising you horrible tortures? Phobia's mind seeks to cover the telepath's sight with her nightmarish visions, his ears with the sounds of their hissing and rattling tails, his skin with the feel of the beasts slithering and undulating against him. Narrowly focused into one mind, Phobia's shaking physically to maintain the attack, hardly able to breath but wanting nothing more than the three men in the sedan to die in fright and fear and terror. How, she really doesn't care.

With her foe knocked down, Supergirl doesn't waste any time. She dahses forwardm standing over the exoskeleton in a blink of an eye. Reaching down, she rips off the sonic emitter from the front of the helmet. "Okay. Let's try this again. Care to surrender?" Her eeys start to glow red as her heat vision warms up.

The metal is torn and the man flails for a second more. He seems to realize it's useless soon enough. "Aaa! Don't kill me!" Pause. "Oh man, they're gonna kill me-But don't you kill me first!" His voice is high-pitched, frantic as he holds hands to the side in the best surrender he can manage. "Please!" The man that was in the process of being kidnapped has skittered to the other side of the roof, peeking out from behind another cooling unit to keep track of the action.

The car weaves through traffic as it takes off, eventually taking the sidewalk due to the congestion and general chaos. Then Phobia's attack hits. It's fairly obvious by the sudden jerk of movement, the brakes hit, then the gas, the breaks, and then the car goes careening full-speed through the glass doors of one of the many impressive buildings that line the street. It smashes into something inside shortly after, the splintering of metal echoing down the street. Police are sprinting that way soon after.

Phobia continues her mental assault, whole frame trembling as she works while struggling to regain her breath. He'll know fear until she can no longer feel his mind. She's inching toward the wreckage, this green and black ghoulish creature with a girlish form, seeming to drag itself along the sidewalk.

"I'm not going to kill you," Supergirl says as she powers down her heat vision. She gives the man in the suit a sympathtic look. "But I need to know what's going on. Why are you doing this? Who's going to kill you? Maybe I can help you out here."

"They hired me to kidnap this guy," The man in the exoskeleton points, still half-panicked. "Said he gave some bad stock advice or something. The wanted revenge. The mob, you know? Because I had this suit, they offered me the money, it was good money, I didn't-I'm sorry! Don't laser me. I'll tell you who and everything."

Phobia will lose contact with the telepath soon enough. She'll also find a lot of people fleeing the immediate vicinity, and police swarming the area, calling for backup, one or two spotting her and pointing.

Phobia collapses forward to her hands as she loses contact with the telepath, body wanting to curl up onto itself. She's gasping audibly, head bowed, the nightmare vision about her begining to flicker away as her mind no longer supplies terror illusions into the mind of another.

Supergirl nods and uses her vision to take not of the scene she just left. Stll trouble there..."Okay, surrender to the police. Tell them everything. If you're not in police custody, the next time we meet, I'm going to deliver you to RIker's Island personally. Understand?" She's not trying to be scary, just authoritative. And with a *whoosh!*, Supergirl flies back to the scene where the crowd is tryign to get away and the police are surrounding the area. She lands in the middle of the chaos, looking around to see what cna be done to calm things down.

The villain is deposited with the police, the man she saved thanking her profusely. The crowds begin to grow calmer thanks to the effort of the law and her help, and there are even a few people nearby who cluster around the superhero. Some even yell things at her: Supergirl! You're the best! Thank you! Can I have your autograph! I saw you on TV! How do you feel about the unfair distribution of wealth in America! I'm your biggest fan! I'm going to name my daughter after you!

The disturbance allows time for Phobia to recover, and get lost if she need be. A few people might go looking for the nightmare monster, but nobody's really had time to pay attention to the change. A few paramedics will arrive soon enough, and one or two bystanders have enough medical knowledge to help anyone not severely hurt. Soon things will be back under control, business as usual.

Phobia recovers, and Angela pushes herself to her feet weakly. She looks over to see Supergirl getting the attention, the people, everyone leaving her alone. The autophobe trembles at the sudden sense of isolation and she screams in fear, blindly turning to run and careening into people as she goes.

Supergirl looks out over the crowd. There's lots of screaming, confused people, but everyone seems to be calming down of their own accord. Strange....Kara checks with the police to see if there's anything she can do to help, signs a few autogrpahs, then waves to the crowd. By this time, Angela is probably long gone. With another wave to the crowd, Supergirl lifts off and heads back towards Metropolis; she'll call Cassie later and tell her what happened so that Wonder Girl can keep an eye out for any trouble.