2014.05.07 - Ants in the Moon Pants

Wednesday afternoon finds the Gotham Museum light on visitors. Other than the museum staff there is a group of 5th graders, who's teacher is trying to convince them to leave the natural sciences exhibit, specifically the dinosaur skeletons. In another area of the museum we can find the complete opposite scenario: a group of senior citizens that are clearly on tour from their retirement home, since they are all wearing the same neon orange t-shirts.

One of the newest exhibits in the museum is based around the regalia of King Narmer, including a headdress who's central piece is a 50 carat ruby of a red so deep it borders on black when lights are not shinning on it.

Rook's plan is remarkably simple. For a while she considered actually infiltrating the museum in costume, but a check on the size of the ruby put that idea to rest. Her employer was very stingy about the time, this would have been easier if it could be done after dark...but Rook was not one to stand on flourish. This will have to be fast. She teleports from rooftop to rooftop, not enjoying the broad daylight but moving quickly enough that she should be difficult to spot to the average person. At last she arrives over the Egyptian exhibit and its conveniently placed (but irrelevant) skylight. Rook crouches beside it, examining the prize.

Steven Grant is standing around the fringes of the tour group, dressed in a snappy suit and interestedly looking over the display on Narmer.

Croyd has just woken up, after having spent the last two months sleeping in the air vent. He pops it open and is STARVING....what can he do? He tries a few tricks...hmm...invisible? Nice? Super strength! Even better....hair? Awful. He pops open the air duct and drops to the ground, utterly invisible. He starts to look around for vending machines.

At about the same time Rook lands next to the skylight, Button enters the museum and saunters over to the Egyptian exhibit. Today she's wearing a light simmer dress in a cheerful green color with printed flowers along the hem of the skirt and her hair is being held back by a while headband. The only thing unusual about her is the slightly metallic looking glove on her left hand, the material of which matches her calf-high boots.

Meanwhile, outside Panic and Delete land on the opposite side of the skylight from Rook. Panic looks over at the young woman and asks, "Has the Mistress started yet? Please say no, she'll be sooooo mad if we're not in place on time!"

Rook looks up at the two robots as they land across from her. The infiltrator rises up to her full, less than impressive, height. "I just saw her enter." Rook notes, but doesn't gesture towards the skylight. "Not that she has bothered telling me much about this plan. And it's not like we need one. I can be in an out in about three seconds." She holds up three fingers in case the robots don't know what that means. "This was short notice. Talk to me about the ruby's case. I've just seen pictures."

Grant glances up at the sound of the two large robots landing on the roof. That's strange... are those..people up there through the skylight? It might be worth checking out, Marc thinks.

Croyd is kind of non-plussed by the robots....but then he finds the vending machine right around the corner and lifts the door off, ripping it off with his hands. FOOD! Croyd is hungry! He'll totally you know...help out or something...except he can just throw things and turn invisible. FOOD!

The jaws theme plays on a nearby speaker.

Panic and Delete speak over each other as Panic says, "Oh, no! That would be waaaay too boring. The Mistress would be very unhappy about a boring caper. Its all about the entertainment of the challenge, don't you know?" while Delete says, in a surprisingly childlike voice for such a big robot, "The case is bullet proof, has weight sensor accurate to a kilogram, and if any anomaly is detected the room is sealed off by blast doors, including this skylight."

In the museum proper, Button gives a little jump and spins around to look behind her when the noise of screeching, tearing metal fills the first floor of the museum. From that point on her reaction is a little different from that of the senior citizens and the children in the area. The two big groups start talking in worried voices, some of the kids even starting to run for the front doors yelling about ghosts. Completely against their teacher's instructors. The museum guards also start to cautiously make their way towards the suddenly door-less vending machine.

Instead of freaking out Button smiles to herself, walks by the display for Narmer's headdress and runs her hand lightly over the glass, leaving behind a thin line of black all along the display case's glass. Then she ambles over to a corner, looks up at the skylight and winks at the woman and the robots up there.

Long distance to Rook: Button chuckles,"Nope. although Button did talk about trying out some new tech." Even with her face obscured, Rook does not look amused. "Oh, she wants an interesting caper? She doesn't want things to be too boring? I can do that." The woman disappears, simply vanishing in midair. She reappears right next to the ruby display case, facing towards Button. Rook gives the even shorter girl a fingerwave and then slams a fist against the black line. "Let's make things interesting!"

Marc's head turns sharply at the screeching, though his first thought is that it's some sort of distraction for the people above. He grows all the more wary, and hangs around to watch... and finds the cheerful little lady in the green sundress' behavior more than a little odd. He steps up next to her, opening his mouth to speak...and then leaves it open as the other girl appears out of nowhere next to the case. One hand reaches for his chest while the other goes for the truncheon hidden in his jacket.

Croyd begins grabbing handfuls of goodies. He should totally you know...do something. But he's eating the candy right now. Rip. Gobble. Rip. Gobble. The floor looks disgusting with wrappers everywhere. Shame about the kids n stuff. No one hurt though, that's good.

The guards are completely unaware of what's going on in the Egyptian exhibits because they are focused on the rain of candy wrappers slowly puddling around an empty space in front of the vending machine. They have drawn guns and one of the more alert guards is now herding both old people and young towards the exits while the others look back and forth between themselves and the growing mound of candy wrappers, "Ummm, Fred? You've worked here for 20 years... Ever heard of a candy stealing ghost?"

For her part Button has been fiddling around with her glove, almost as if typing on it. As Rook slams a against the black line Botton just smiles, fingerwaves back then points at the case. The black line has now split into hundreds and hundreds of tiny black dots, creating a wider, grey-looking line. And the glass under them is smoking. As are some spots on Rook's glove. "I'd be careful with that. Just tap you hand on the case so they fall off before they start eating skin. But don't tap too hard or you'll set off the alarms."

A few seconds later Panic and Delete crash through the skylight, landing right behind the man that is standing so close to their Mistress. Delete leaves a big dent in the floor, which he looks at with as much charinge as a robot can express, while Panic addresses the man, "Why are you so close to the Mistress?"

Rook looks over her smoking glove, flexing her fingers until she's satisfied it isn't going to burn through to the skin. "That is very nice. Very clever." Rook replies to Button. "But." She holds up a finger on her non-smoking hand. That the guards, or anyone else, might have reacted, doesn't seem to faze her at all. "Allow me to demonstrated." Rook takes a few steps back until she is perpendicular to another pane of glass, one that isn't being eaten through. She reaches right through it as if it wasn't even there and then attempts to grab the ruby and pull it out.

Marc notes the odd glove and the tapping, and responds by grabbing the girl's wrist and yanking her around into a pin, if nothing stops him. The fact he can't clearly see her face only convinces him further she's not here by chance. "Okay, that's about enough of th--" about then is when the pair of robots crash down behind him, and he turns, trying to get his back towards a wall rather than being between the phasing girl and the robots. "So much for a boring day.."

Croyd slowly becomes aware of the fact that he has drawn the ire of the guards. "CRAP!" The speaker plays sad trombone. Note, that this does not actually stop him from eating...just makes him worry. Until the guards start shooting he keeps grabbing more food and feeding his face.

ROBOTS!

Awesome. More time for food.

Button reaches out a hand to Rook as if to stop her then lets out a big sigh when the other woman pulls on the ruby and dislodges it from its case. Immediately alarms start going off and blast doors start their quick descent from the top of the door frames and across the sky light. Quick enough that your normal, average, non-super speedy person has no chance of getting out before the blast doors slam into the floor, closing the room off.

Panic lets out a dismayed, "Now you've done it! Delete told you there was a weight sensor!" when the alarms start going off. But all his focus, along with Delete's, is on the man grabbing Button, who says in a calm, nonchalant voice, "Boys? Get this big brute off me please. Just don't kill him unless you really, really have to. I just washed you two yesterday and I don't feel like getting blood out from in between your joints."

Outside some of the guards spin around when the alarms start blaring. And they start shooting randomly at the people in the quickly disappearing Egyptian exhibit. Some of the other already nervous guards react even quicker to the alarms and just start shooting the ghost haunted vending machine. And one of them just says, "Shit! They don't pay me enough for this! I quit!", drops his weapon, and starts running after the guests that are now mostly out of the museum.

Rook doesn't seem at all perturbed by the fact that she has triggered the alarms. Ruby in hand, she slips it into a pouch on her waist. "You said you wanted to make this interesting." Rook replies to Button. "Well, now it's interesting. These doors can't-" When the guards start shooting Rook whirls around, making her body intangible just on the off chance she catches a ricochet or a direct shot. "Shit! Where did they hire these idiots? There are people in here!" She teleports, attempting to disarm one of the guards by phase-grabbing the slide right off of his gun.

Marc keeps his pin on Button, though his eyes are on Rook...she can move through walls? Those blast doors won't mean much to her, then. He throws Button at Rook-- he's pretty darn strong, and she's pretty darn light. He hopes that will distract the robot's attention, and hopefully Rook's too--maybe even enough that the grapple from his truncheon can catch that ruby from her hands, though he may be far too late as she tucks it away and starts phasing around.

Croyd is serene. He thinks he has it made because the guards are distracted. Then bullets. One hits him in the side, and blood begins to ooze out onto the floor, "CHRIST! ARE YOU IDIOTS INSANE! WHY THE @#$@#$ DID YOU NEED TO SHOOT THE HAUNTED VENDING MACHINE!" He's mad and picks up the vending machine...but they run away before he can throw it at them.

Button seems to know something Marc does not because as soon as she's thrown she goes limp and calls out in a bored voice, "Panic. Thump him. Delete, get the door please." Said door has clanged down into the floor only to clang once again as Button slams into it bounces off then gets up and starts to dust her skirts off. "That was not very gentlemanly, Sir."

Rook manages to make it to one of the guards and disarm his weapon. Coincidentally that happens at about the same moment a flying vending machine heads straight at her, sending the rent-a-cops scattering to the winds. Now its the guards that are yelling about ghosts. And it seems that the vending machine flying through the air is the straw that breaks the metaphorical camel's back as the guards come out of their dives running pell-mell for any and all exits from the museum.

Rook manages to have the presence of mind not to get crushed, again being on edge from the shooting. The vending machine crashes and bounces right through her, as if she were not in its path at all. "Huh." Rook turns her head to watch the mysteriously flying machine settle, and then starts to walk back towards the robbed display. "It's really a trick, only the soles of her feet are solid in this dangerous area, allowing her to walk as if everything was normal. "I have the ruby, and I'm going to go. I'll give it to you at the drop point, all right?"

Marc grunts in reply to Button. ..He'd expected her to hit the other girl, not the metal wall, but he's not very sorry. Moon Knight's welling up as the situation grows dire anyways, and he's not sorry at all. He dives away from the robots and towards Button, not intending to sit still to be 'thumped'. He hears Rook call through the doorway about a drop point...so this is an alliance of sorts between them?

Croyd throws the vending machine at the nearest robot out of frustration. The glass on another machine is playing, "Helter Skelter" while another is playing an orchestral tragic violin concerto...the world's saddest violin! "I'm HIT!" Croyd becomes visible and begins grabbing candy wrappers to plug the wound in his side, "YOU BASTARDS!"

Gotham city offers all variety of lowlifes and the sort of people that need punishing. And while Frank respects the Bat the man seems loathe to kill. That's where the Punisher comes in. On his way back through the city after one of his cleansing projects he hears the alarms.

~This outta' be good~

With the sight of the guards rushing out he can't help himself but rush right in. An old High Point 44. pulled (and surely the weapon of one of his recent victims) he rushes through the doors in time to see the vending machine flying across the floor. When it crashes into one of the robots Castle quirks a brow. ~The hell did I get myself into~

Delete manages to force the blast door open just in time to become Croyd's target. Thankfully the robot is heavy enough and braced well enough that the machine fails to dislodge him from here he's holding the door up for the small redhead that's ducking away from a much bigger man. "Panic, PANIC! Get this bully off me!" Coming right behind Marc, is a smaller robot (relatively speaking) with two shoulder mounted guns starting to glow ruby red, "Mister. Mister! Stop chasing the Mistress or I will have to shoot you. And it won't be pleasant at all!"

As the machine bounces off Delete he whines, "MISTREEEESS! There's another man out here throwing heavy stuff at me. And he dented my chest panel! Its not my fault! And your friend says she's going away too."

Yep, Button sees the other man as she scrambles out of the Egyptian exhibit with Marc hot on her tail. "I can't do anything about that right now Delete. Just drop the door when Panic comes out and deal with it yourself!"

"I will take that as a yes." Rook notes to Button, who is a bit more preoccupied than she is at the moment. The infiltrator glances behind her, noting that the fuzz-or worse-is likely to be on the way. "Ta ta. See you soon." Rook disappears, ruby in tow, teleporting back up to the rooftop. From there, it should be a leisurely few jumps to the safehouse...

Moon Knight doesn't even let Marc stop to focus on evading the guns, he's zeroed in on Button first and foremost. He fires that grappling hook at her again, trying to yank her close, and if he can get her between him and the robot before he's shot, great, and if not, he'll deal with that as it comes.

Croyd might be more tempted to you know...do something neat if he weren't @#$@#$ @#$ @#$ @#$ @#$ @# $@# $@#$ @#$ @#$ BLEEDING ALL OVER THE @#$@#$ @#$ @#$. He grabs four packages of Cheetos and stuffs them into the bullet wound. It was really just a near graze but damn if it doesn't hurt. He sort of limps dramatically out the exit the guards took. He wants to have words....

With the emergence of shoulder toting gun robots and such Frank dives for cover. A few vending machines that have not been thrown about used as he checks the clip on his junky gun. ~Shit piece. Shit Ammo~ He peers around at Button and the haze in front of her face only has him shrugging. When Rook teleports out now he sees Moon Knight. Though, he does not recognize him. No issues there and he does not care too much about jewelry heists either. But, he is holding a pistol and the aroma of gunpowder in the air gets his trigger finger itchy. With the sound of the robots he scowls before diving out. -BLAM BLAM BLAM!- He lets out three shots now aimed to take out 'Delete' before the gun jams. Sliding across the floor in true Marvel fashion all the way to the other side of the room he sees Croyd shoving munchies in wounds and the scene only becomes more bizarre.

Bullets start ricocheting off of Delete as all of Frank's shots hit their mark. "Mistress! Mistress! There's /another/ one! And he scratched my paint! Please don't punish me! It wasn't my fault!" However, while he's whining he is still following instructions. Dropping the door immediately after Panic leaves the Egyptian exhibit he jumps after Croyd. Landing in front of the man and blocking his exit he says, "Mistress says I need to deal with you because you dented my front panel." followed by throwing a massive punch at Croyd's head.

Marc's grappling hook manages to catch Button. The only problem being that Panic managed to stretch out and grab the back of the man's suit, jerking him off his feet. "You let go of the Mistress /right now/!" For her part, Button's right hand is furiously flying around over the metallic glove on her left arm and in response smoke has started coming out from under the blast door Delete just released.

Moon Knight grabs for Button as the grappling hook yanks her back, shouting to Panic, "Your Mistress will be safer if you set me down!" if he can get a grip on her, he'll try to cover Button's mouth to prevent any argument of his claims.

Croyd suddenly stops caring about the blood and limps a whole hell of a lot less. Well, not at all really. He grabs a second vending machine while the theme from Terminator plays through the air duct. "Your mistress is gonna be a whole hell of a lot MORE pissed when she sees the new dents!" He sends it hurtling toward Panic.

Castle is scowling now as the bullets bounce off. ~Shoulda' known better~ As he continues his slide across the floor he bumps into the wall with his jammed weapon. Releasing the magazine he racks at the gun until the round is released and inserts the rest of his ammunition. The slide pulled back quickly. He waits though, watching the scene unfold and unsure of just what to do as he watches Moony and Button along with the Bot. His head snaps over to Croyd as he shouts and Frank watches as another vending machine is hurled. ~Damn.~ He pops up now with his back against the wall and reaches inside his jacket. While he has no dog this fight he does not want to be arrested, wanted criminal and all. From beneath the long black over coat a flash-bang is pulled and added to the smokey diversion Button is creating. Right beneath her feet it lands now.

A tiny little hole forms under the blast door and from it start streaming countless tiny black dots. Ants maybe? The ants focus on Moon Knight and start crawling up his legs, and everywhere they go Moon Knight's clothing and armor start to smoke. Panic changes his tactics and drops Moon Knight, staying well away from the suspected ants and instead aims his lasers at Button. The impact of the weapons doesn't seem to damage the small redhead but it does blast her right out of Moon Knight's grasp.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the lobby Croyd manages to bean Delete on the head while /almost/ dodging the big robot's punch. But almost still means catching a glancing blow that sends him sliding along the floor for at least 5 feet. Delete yells out, "Mistress! Mistress! He broke one of my quantum arrays. Power output is down to 85#2320 Can we go now, pleeeeaseeee?"

Rolling with the impact of the lasers Button pops back up and starts floating towards the ceiling right as the flash-bang goes off. After letting out a pained gasp she shakes her to try and clear her vision and calls out to the robots, "OK boys, I think its time to go. Delete, make an exit in the roof please." To the 'heroes' she says, "Well, its been fun boys but I have to go retrieve my ruby now. Tata!" And she actually sounds like she means it when she says its been fun.

Moon Knight is alarmed by the 'ant' things, but he wants to find out who this girl is! He grabs at her headband as she is knocked away on a hunch!

Croyd gets slammed back into the wall, not hurt so much as winded and he slides down the ground. The Pac Man 'dying' sound plays from the robots own speaker grill and Croyd looks around, slightly stunned. He turns invisible.

Stuff is getting far too wierd for Frank now. With the flash bang going off while he covers his ears and eyes he waits and then shuffles off right past Croyd and the droid! He will try and fly right out the way he came in, the front doors.

Panic's lasers manage to make Button's force field weaken just enough to give Moon Knight a chance to pull her headband off. However, Frank's flash-bang goes off just in time to make it almost impossible to really see the girl's face as Delete flies up and away from Croyd, busting a wide hole in the ceiling out of which the redhead and her two robotic henchmen disappear. Button's voice can be heard floating back for a few seconds as she yells at Panic, "You shot me! You shot me! You know you could have just pulled me out of his hands right? Maybe broken his wrists to make it easier? You didn't have to shoot me! now I have to destroy the head band!" And along with Panic's dejected, "i'm sorry..." the headband suddenly bursts into flames in Moon Knight's hands.

Moon Knight hisses as his hands are currently unprotected, and he throws the headband towards the vending machines. He blindly moves away from the swarm of bug things and towards the other two lest he end up seriously on fire... he only saw her for a flash without the 'mask', but it might prove useful later none the less.

Croyd runs around the robot and leaves. Croyd has LEFT the building folks. Time to find a bandage better than a Cheetos bag, get one of his stashes and get some serious food. He'll need cash and lots of it!

Moon Knightbats out the fire on his clothes and gets out of the building too, before the police show up. He looks around for the thieves, but sees no sign. However he does spot the man who was shooting in the halls...is he tied up in this?