2014.02.09 - Robotic Field Test

It's been about fifteen minutes since the pale teen cautiously looked up and down the street, then slipped into the specialty clothiers. She's been disrupting enough deals around the crime slums that she has some money to burn, and decides she'll try the whole 'paying for things' stuff. Maybe... at least having money on hand will help her not get thrown out!

She had just stepped out from the dressing room, again peering self consciously up and down the store. It was a trendy goth store, and Phantasma had been admiring the dresses out front for days now. Ever since she drifted past the store. The purple and black gown she had picked out filled her slight form rather well, and short of keeping her hand cupped over the back of her neck, she started to lightly sway smiling faintly to herself.

Set on the ground beside her ratty old street clothes, Frankenbunny was propped up to 'watch' her. After her third twirl, she looks down to the grotesque backpack and says "What do you think... is it me?"

The little bell on the goth shop's door rings as a lean-to-scrawny-looking young man in (of course) mostly black comes inside. He makes no move to take the scarf he's got tightly wrapped around the lower portion of his face, and ducks quickly towards the display of mens clothing and accessories. Guy's gotta find his wallet chains somewhere, right? He gives the girl twirling around in the dress and talking to her... backpack(?) a polite, if silent greeting in the form of a half-nod.

So, what is Heather doing here in this area? Well, most folks are here to shop. She was actually visiting a boutique owner who she really just enjoys the company of. Trying on a few things and having pictures taken so the owner could advertise that the model used her place. The least she can do for a friend. Her Heathermobile is parked out front....

The Heathermobile. Otherwise known as a powder blue Prius. Because... saving money is cool. Anyhow, she steps out of the boutique and waves back to her friend. This is roughly across the street from the Goth shop... why? Because which came first? The boutique or the goths? Question of the ages you might say. But more importantly, Heather's nose picks out the scent of cooked meat and her tummy grumbles. She's -always- hungry these days too. So she waits for traffic to clear and then dashes across the street where she waves to a hot dog cart vendor and says, "Four please. Chili dogs, but no onions." as she reaches into a pocket to grab a couple bills of cash of various denominations.

"Keep your eye on the card now... and try not to get dizzy."

It's a common enough sight in large cities, though it's not perhaps the most common of sights in Metropolis. A man on a sidewalk, sitting on a flipped-over bucket, crouched over a flipped-over cardboard box. On the box's surface, three slightly-bent cards are placed, face down.

The dealer, or rather the man who would be called the dealer if this was in any way a legitimate game, begins to shuffle the cards around on his makeshift table. At first the movement is pretty slow, but it rapidly picks up. The sleeves of his shabby brown duster flop around distractingly as he shuffles the cards about.

Around the trenchcoat-wearing man, a small crowd of three people has formed a semi-circle. "Keep an eye on his hands now, make sure he doesn't try to switch them out." A helpful youngster pipes up, looking steadfastly at the cards while peeking at an older gentleman in a suit from the corner of his eye.

There comes a sound of snorting from one of the other fitting rooms, followed almost immediately by the rustling of clothes. Then, the door gets thrown open and out stomps one scantily and punkily clad Lynette Shackleford. "Christ," she blurts out. "These are all too bloody big!" She tosses a pile of clothing onto a discard pile--not an official one, but rather one she's made--then promptly rounds a corner and screeches to a halt when Phantasma comes into view. "Whoa... hey there, Transylvania." She looks the younger girl up and down, her expression somewhere between approval and utter disdain.

The man with the scarf, having moved on from chains to men's coats looks back over his shoulder as Lynette bursts out of the other change room. Jono raises an eyebrow, looking between the two women, not sure if they're about to start sniping at each other, or become the best of friends.  he says in Lynette's direction.  he motions to one rack with labels that look like ones his ex back home used to avoid for that reason. At least he thinks they look like them. Women's clothing sizing is /weird/. He's starting to wander back towards the front of the store, nothing catching his eye. Well. The creepy patchwork backpack did, but mostly because he's not putting it past the thing not to get off the chair and attack him.

An extremely short girl in a green and black plaid, pleated skirt and a white blouse comes up the street, making a bee-line for the coffee shop that's the neighbor to the goth shop. Other than her height the only other remarkable things about the girl are the knee high, black boots she's wearing and the black glove covering her left hand. Both the boots and the glove are slightly shiny, as if they were made of rubber or a flexible metal and they're also subtly thicker than a normal article of clothing.

Once she reaches the shop she opens the door and walks up to the counter, examining the menu on the wall behind the register.

"Heather!" comes a bright voice from across the street. Marissa, her normal bag over her shoulders, crosses the street in true New York fashion - you know, run and trust the cabs will all stop - to join her friend and teammate at the hot dog vendor. The guy playing shell games is completely ignored, as are the people in the Goth shop. She's mostly focused on Heather. And not getting hit by a cab.

The creepy pale girl seems lost in her own little world, not even noticing the sound of the bell. Not until her eyes actually CATCH the guy looking at her that she freezes, the nod of approval earning a flush to her cheeks. Still, she looked wary... skittish. Then a boorish woman rounds the corner and causes her to jump! It would be hard not to notice she was in the air a few moments too long, and seemed to come down oddly lightly.

For a moment after the comment passes, she looks less... er... there... briefly. It was fast enough coming and going that it might have been a trick of the light. She doesn't say anything though, stepping back with a steady leer at the ginger woman. As Frankenbunny catches some attention, she gropes for him with the hand not covering the back of her neck, and steps back into the changing room with a crude 'slam'.

"Make that five, not four." offers Heather to the vendor when she hears her friend's voice. She turns and smiles... not her forced model smile. Just the friendly sincere one her friends get. "Marissa! Perfect timing! I got dinner. You get the coffee, okay?" she asks as she pays for the five chili dogs, actually expecting Marissa to even -try- to eat one of the piled on monstrosities. "I was just over at Katie's boutique, hanging out for a bit. You seen their new line of club dresses?" She asks, a little fashion gossip between friends even as she turns to open her arms, embracing Marissa like the friend she is.

There's a subtle blink of the eye. Lynette, the foul mouthed and red-haired Scot, certainly noticed it all, for you see, she just did a bump of cocaine in the fitting room. She stands there for a moment and utterly stares, before looking over toward Jono as if he were the next item on her menu.

For a moment, he gets the same disdainful look that she just gave Phantasma. After a beat, however, her lip curls upward into a rueful smirk. "Thanks, lad, but this shit hole only has one thing fer me." She zooms past him to a rack of tights, snatching up four items in rapid fire, as if she wasn't even looking, before walking right up to the counter and plunking the items down alongside a pair of crumpled up Jacksons. To the clerk she merely smirks and remarks, with a heavy dose of sarcasm, "Nice place ya got here."

A moment after the clerk finishes with Lynette's transaction, she turns and heads for the door. Simultaneously, the clerk's face hits the counter, and she's out like a light, snoring loudly.

Jono actually jumps back when the clerk passes out. A loud well, psychically loud, going right to the head and not the ears |"the fuck!?"| rings out through the shop, and maybe even a little bit beyond. He leans forward to jostle the clerk's shoulder. |"Just one bloody normal day. That's all I want. One. Normal. Day."| This is so very not normal.

Mend hugs Heather back. "I have, but I'm broke, remember." She's really broke right now, even with her scholarship and the work she's doing for StarkTech. If she didn't get to live at the Tower, she'd probably be pretty screwed. "Coffee...that place two doors down is good, right?" She thinks it is, but it's hard to keep track of every coffee shop in New York.

It was sudden, and happened very shortly after the woman at the counter fell asleep. The front door to the boutique suddenly SLAMMED open, as though it had been caught by a particularly strong gust of wind, and a chill filled the room. Not a universal chill sweeping through the room, but one that weaved about. Lynette would feel it first. For a few moments its like her legs are dipped in cool water right to the bone, while this 'breeze' washes over her body strangely.

Unfortunately, the next moment in Jono's life isn't much more normal, as the cold chill gusts THROUGH him next. Its like a cold breeze just blew straight through him, ignoring his clothes... his skin... and went straight to the core of his body. A phantom grope could even be felt behind him at the very end.

Both victims of the chill are likely to later find things not ENTIRELY as they were, though while Lynette may find a few things have turned up missing, Jono would find something extra. A gungy old movie ticket for the old theater in Old Gotham.

"Oh shit! There's a cop!" The kid starts running away as fast as his legs can carry him, and the rest of the spectators follow suit. The trenchcoat wearing man scrambles to pick up everything (including the money) and then dashes to the nearest alleyway. He reemerges a few minutes later holding a small wad of twenties.

"And they say New Yorkers are skeptical...."

As he walks back over to his original spot, his brow furrows. "Or am I thinking about people from Wisconsin?"

A few minutes later, the kid walks back in the con man's direction, and is handed a couple of twenties as he keeps on walking. Super stealth.

The newly-moneyed young man turns his attentions to the hot dog vendor, and after looking around to make sure nobody is coming back for their money, he heads over to the cart.

The auburn haired girl in the pleated skirt finally orders a double shot of expresso, heavy on the sugar getting a strange look from the barrista, who has to lean over the counter to get a decent look at the short woman. "Are you sure you want that, honey? That really isn't a drink for a little girl."

The 'little girl' frowns deeply at the barrista and pulls out an idea, which she slaps on the counter top. The barrista blushes a deep red then hurries off to make the double shot without another word while the red-head recovers her idea, puts some money on the counter to pay for her drink. As soon as she has it she retreats to the back of the coffee shop and hops up onto one of the chairs around the furthest table.

Meanwhile, outside it looks like a small meteor shower has started, even though its mid afternoon and something like that shouldn't be visible. But there's two big streaks of light headed straight for the street shared by the boutique, Goth shop, coffee shop, and hot dog vendor. and the two big streaks are closely followed by 8 or 10 smaller ones.

"Well, let me get it then." offers Heather as she fishes a twenty out of her jeans pocket. She hands it over to Marissa and then reaches for her tray of Chili dogs she already paid for, "Two of these five are yours by the way." she remarks, those are foot longs by the way. She just grins and gestures to a bench nearby. "Look, there's even an open table in this dining room!" she announces. Yeah, she's like.. cheery enough to need three or four sourpusses to counterbalance her attitude. "Oh hey look, there's even cute scenery.." she remarks to Marissa, indicating the approaching Gambit with a mildly subtle jut of her chin. After all, she's using both hands to balance the tray of chili dogs. Don't wanna spill any of those tasty tasty calories. She sits down and sets the tray on the bench, reaching to pick up one dog and gets as far as filling her mouth with one messy bite before she spots the... incoming... streaks. "Mo ethin'.. ay..." she says, her words screwed up by the mouthful of food. She chews and swallows a bit before saying, "Marissa... looks like it's time for a rain-check."

"The fuck!?" Lynette blurts this out in response to the door slamming open and a chill filling the place, but it happens to come at the same moment as Jono's telepathic burst. It all causes her to freeze for a moment, eyes growing wide and angry. Silently she seethes, but after a moment, she just goes right out that front door of the shop and onto the street with a lingering glare on her face.

Lynette reaches into her purse, fishes around for a moment, and then freezes again. She turns back toward the shop, lip trembling for a moment. "Am nae gonna put up with this shit today!" She walks back over to the goth shop, throws the door open, and all but screams out at the top of her voice. "WHO THE FUCK ONE A YOU BLOODY NEDS MADE OFF WIT MY FAGS!?!"

With her back turned to the street, Lynette has no idea what is happening above, no clue to the meteors that seem to be coming in.

And the shop owner still snoozes, in spite of Jono's best attempts to wake her.

There's a lot less of Jono to go through than with most people- that scarf is hiding a huge hole in his body, and the lack of half his face. No heart, lungs, nothing but a fire burning without heat. For the first time since his powers manifested, he actually shivers, doubling forward a little and putting his hand on the shop counter to brace himself, just in time for the Scotswoman to return yelling about her damn cigarettes, while fiery death appears to start raining down on Lower Metropolis. Annoyed, he tears the fabric covering his face away, and the energy within him flares out. |"Do I look like I've got a goddamn use for them?"| he demands, starting towards her, and the door, and shoving the ticket into his pocket without thinking. |"Mind moving? Looks like the world's ending out there, and I really don't wanna spend my last minutes in a half-size Hot Topic."| He's so doing all his shopping online from now on, provided he survives this. "You know I don't appreciate that scenery," Marissa says, mildly, claiming her hot dogs. "The chick yelling into the store, though? Especially in that dress." Mmm. She's very casual about it, and clearly doesn't care who hears her appreciating a fellow female. And then she starts nomming on one of the hot dogs. Does she really plan on eating that much?

Just before Jono decides to start streaking, he might catch sight of Phantasma. Sporting the same purple dress as before and a new purple choker she snatched off a shelf, not to mention the grotesque frankenbunny backpack, she fades slowly into view with her fingers in her ears, a cigarette stuck between two of them, making a rather crude and childish face to Lynette's back. Then, before the disgruntled woman can turn around, she's gone again, vanished as though she was never there. Only lingering wisps of smoke, and the smell of burnt tobacco. Something strange was DEFINITELY happening around here lately!

Apparently the sketchy mutant heard enough to dissuade him from talking to either of the women, though anyone observing might have thought he was just on the verge of making an introduction.

Instead, he waves a twenty in front of the vendor's face in a manner that's just a bit too flashy. "Hey man, let me get two dogs and a coke. Nah, not that kind of coke. Dr. Pepper."

The hand waving might seem a bit out of the ordinary, unless one happened to see that his left hand was planted firmly in the vendor's cash drawer.

However, he didn't really need to make his own distraction, apparently. The suddenly-appearing meteors do a pretty good job of drawing attention away from the transient con man.

The light streaks quickly resolve into a multitude of robots. They all look identical with the exception of the two making the bigger streaks of light. The small ones are about 4 feet tall and are humanoid in shape, except that instead of hands they the barrels of some sort of projectile weapon or another.

Then there's the other two bots. One of them stands a little over 6 feet tall and looks like one would expect a humanoid robot to look like, except for the two large cannons coming out of his back and pointing forward over his shoulders. The largest robot is almost ten feet tall and nearly as wide, looking like a battlemech in miniature and also has two cannons pointing out over it shoulders.

The robots quickly arrange themselves around the street in a defensive perimeter that is meant to prevent entrance to the coffee shop. The 'battlemech' moves to directly block the door, after the 6 foot one enters the establishment and announces, "Hello everyone. Please don't panic. all we want is all your money and then we will be gone. If you could please put your money in my drawer I would be very happy and if I'm happy I won't shoot people." All of this is said in a cheerful, almost child-like voice as a drawer opens up in his lower abdomen, where a human's stomach would be.

"Hon, just cuz you prefer one, don't mean you can't appreciate the other. I mean I like guys but I still know you're adorable." says Heather absently to Mend. "But... I think that's the least of our concerns right now." She sets down her chili dog, reaches her hand up to cup Marissa's chin and turns her eyes towards the incoming.. streaks... er robots.

"Seriously? Robot drop pods? What is this, some demented real life HALO game?" she mutters as she stands up... grabbing the chili dog to take one more bite. Looks like she's gonna need the calories today.

"You bring a costume?" She asks Marissa/Mend. "I'm kinda stuck without... again." She mutters. Then.. they impact and Heather exclaims, "MY CAR!" as one of them landed on the Heathermobile. We'll designate the Battlemech one as the car crusher.

She rolls her eyes and says, "Tell me this is all a sick joke. Robotic robberies? You know you picked the wrong city, planet, or whatever to try this crap on, right?!" she yells at the robots, hoping to have their attention on her and not on the other bystanders. Yep, she's even walking right forward towards them like she didn't have a fear in the world.

Jono's revelation draws a ghastly look from Lynette. It's enough to cause her to take a step back, blood cooling and mouth silenced. It's also dawning on her that while Jono's mouth isn't moving, she can hear him. Which is both creepy and cool at the same time.

Its all enough to help her lose control over the shopkeeper, who suddenly bolts upright, released from the terrible nightmare Lynette had been keeping her locked into. The shopkeeper's face is white with the horror she's just lived through in a most realistic nightmare, and begins screaming.

Paying the shopkeeper no attention, Lynette backs off when Jono comes striding toward her and the door. "Wot?" she fires back. "Worlds always endin', bawbag." She lets him pass by though, wanting not to disturb him for he looks almost as upset as she was. That's when she notices what is falling from the sky... smells the scent of burnt tobacco that is the same as her favorite blend of smokes, and simultaneously grows annoyed by the screaming of the shopkeep.

A hand flicks back behind her, snapping fingers at the shopkeep. She summarily faceplants again.

Now, a girl can't help but be nosy. She's also not about to be stuck inside a goth shop with a shopkeep who is dreaming about all manner of severed limbs. So, out the door she goes, her eyes dancing about wildly for a moment. And then? She finds the first man she can, one who is smoking, and walks over to him. She passes by with a demure smile on her face, which causes him to stumble. And fall. On his face, asleep.

"Sweet Jesus, you Yanks are bloody predictable." She knees down, certainly giving anyone behind her quite a view given punkstyle miniskirt, and fishes around his person until she finds his smokes.

"Pall Mall Red? Seriously?"

Robots? Really? Jono's best psychic impression of a sigh is projected outwards. |"Oi! Are you really robots, or do you have people inside like Iron Man?"| he 'shouts' towards the machines. |"Of course, if you're just robots, you probably can't hear me. And I won't feel too bad about this."| Pause. |"Anyone not a robot might wanna duck."| Any fabric left covering the furnace within him is atomized when he directs of blast of the energy at the closet robot's weapon... thing. So far his brilliant plan is... get their attention and explode things until the real superheroes show up.

"I always bring a costume. I didn't bring *yours*, though. Distraction?" she inquires of the much tougher Titan, calmly setting down her food as if she was preparing to, I don't know, go on the catwalk. Then she darts for an alleyway to get her gear out of her bag. Hey. Real superheroes? They're here!

Even the ghost girl is shaken by the sudden thundering sound of robots hitting the concrete! Invisible as she was, she still spins around in mid air, just in time for Jono to run straight THROUGH her, washing that chilled cold clean through his body again and making her squirm. Shaking it off, she slips out into the street unseen. Between being intangible and invisible, not to mention a good ten feet up in the air, te only thing that would see her is thermals, and even then she'd show up as too cold for a human. Only a little warmer than the cool January weather actually!

And then there it is again, that weird sound in her head! Well, someone's voice anyway. The disorienting sound causes her to once more become briefly, momentarily visible, looking like she was standing in the air just in front of Panic! Just long enough for the bots sensors to pick up someone floating there, before it vanishes again.

As a wad of loose cash disappears into one of his jacket pockets, the shifty con man ducks behind the hot dog cart to try and avoid debris. The owner has, by this point, run far away.

For a moment, Gambit crouches there, protected from the robots by only a fragile food cart. It looks as if he might remain there, but apparently he manages to summon up a bit of bravery.

As he stands up, the full scale of the robot invasion hits home. "You know, somebody once said that caution was the better part of bravery, or something like that." He grabs his partially-made order from the top of the cart, and begins running away from the scene as quick as his legs can take him.

Fast movements and energy blasts both seem to be bad ideas at the moment. Jono's blast catches on of the smaller robots (and the car underneath it) making both of them go up in a large explosion, raining little droplets of flaming gasoline all over the street and panicking the 'normals' that were in the area into bolting. In response two of the other small robots train their laser cannon 'hands' on Jono and start shooting bolts that would be at home coming out of any Star Wars blaster.

On the other side of the semi-circle of robots Mend's quick dash for an alley has attracted some attention as well and two other robots open up on her *pew pew pew* with a third one shooting at Heather and blowing a hot dog clear out of her hand.

Inside the coffee shop the customers are mirroring the panic that is happening outside. Until one of them tries to run out the door and ends up with one of cannon aimed at his back from the robot on the inside and another cannon aimed at his face from the battlemech outside the door. Which is a good enough way to find out that the cannons on the two bigger robots can aim in a 360 degree field of fire and do so independently. "Please do not panic. If anyone else tries to leave without giving us all their money we will add another nice little pie hole to your face. Won't that be nice?" Yep. That makes people start dropping money, and jewelry, and one guy even drops his coat into the robot's open drawer.

By now the street looks like a scene out of a sci-fi movie, with robot shooting at anything that moves. And thought they are doing quite a bit of damage they are intentionally or unintentionally missing most human targets, almost as if they were using lasers to herd them away from the coffee shop.

The hot dog, the sweet chewy, chili covered awesome hot dog of caloric goodness! It is blasted right out of her hand and Heather blinks. "Did you -seriously-...." she asks. Sure, her hand is missing most of the flesh and muscle, but that's already growing back at a speed that is visible to the naked eye.

"Okay, that's it!" she yells as she charges forward and kicks down on one edge of a manhole cover, flipping the thing up and catching it in her hands before using it as a bludgeon on two of the smaller robots. She is a lot stronger than she looks it seems.... caving in the chest plates of those two small bots. "You! Come here!" she announces, pointing at the battlemech, "You owe me a new car! And a new hot dog!"

It is while she is kneeling down that Lynette hears Jono's warning in her mind. Duck? Already done, sugar. She's got a cigarette out and is stuffing the pack in her purse, when the carnage really gets rolling. Her eyes dance about while lighting the stolen cigarette, and then they roll after reluctantly sucking down the first drag,

"Oy," she mutters. "This is worse 'n gobblin' a jessie."

Lynette scrambles over behind a bus stop, tearing her fishnets on the way and leaving a nice runner in the tights beneath. With a grumpy look she stows her purse and bag from the goth shop, then rummages about in her purse for a small vial. Her stash of blow.

--SNIFF!! SnnnnnNIFF!--

Capping the vial and hiding it in her purse again, the Scottish nightmare peeks up from behind the bus stop with a fire in her eyes, which are dancing about in a cocaine-inflamed frenzy. It takes a few moments for her to piece together what's happening, but when she does, an almost whimsical grin forms. "Oh, let's have some fun!"

Her eyes look past the robot that is guarding the coffee shop. They land upon the fellow who has guns against his head. And then, with a wink of Lynette's eye, the fellow collapses on the floor, asleep.

Jono hits the ground and rolls to try to find cover behind a cab whose driver has since fled the scene, but isn't quite fast enough to end up having to roll onto his side to stop his jacket from burning, then throw it off. The blast caught him in the side of the ribs, leaving a blistering patch of red where it got through the layers of his clothes. At least he's not bleeding. Not that he can bleed or anything. Quasi-dead men animating meat suit husks don't bleed. |"May as well join the X-Men if my days are going to be like this"| he 'mutters', projecting only out of habit at this point.

<< Okay, Heather. Keep the distraction. I'm going to try and rig an EMP here. >> She's settled into an alleyway, fiddling with the contents of her bag. Because this is the sort of thing Mend's good at. Oh, and she's in costume now. Which was fast. Maybe she had part of it on under her clothes.

The faint signature that is Phantasma lingers in the air briefly, as people start to put their valuables in the robots compartment. If she could be seen, she would have dollar signs in her eyes. With a hidden grin, she DIVES, still hidden, straight at the compartment. Bolts would pass through her harmlessly, she's hard for the bots to even see, and closing the drawer, should the bot consider it, would do absolutely nothing to impede her. Not only that, but any reaction the bots may have to her would seem quirky, since the ghost girl is still technically invisible.

A small alert on the gathering bot crops up. A pound or so of loot is suddenly unaccounted for. Next the robots turn, swinging their guns around, even the large mechs cannons likely tracking something nobody else can see. The small robots lesser processors are having trouble keeping up, until she finally comes to a stop in between four of them. Finally able to properly track the target, all four turn inwards, and to all other bystanders seem to simply start tearing into one another! Bolts fly and rend metal as the bots shoot themselves into scrap.

All that's left of that wreckage is a body-less, disjointed giggle that at the same time seems quiet and whispery, almost ethereal, like you could only just barely hear it. Never once letting light touch her body, the invisible troublemaker sinks slowly into the ground, making a face at the largest of the two big bots, which likely comes across as an indistinct blur on its sensors.

It only takes the sprinting Cajun a few seconds to get away from danger and around the corner of an obliging alley. There are a few other refugees from the battle here, attempting to wait out the fight and let the heroes save them. Gambit seems to be of a mind to follow suit. But then, someone recognized him.

"Hey! You're the guy who took my money! I googled it, and that game was a scam!"

"Yeah... sorry about that. It's actually a pretty well-known scam, I'm surprised you fell for it. But uh... anyway..."

Suddenly, Gambit turns around and runs back out into the open. He reaches into his pocket as he runs, fumbling for something. "Dammit! Where my deck of cards at?" He finds himself standing right in front of a couple of robots, armed only with a fistful of cash. The look on his face is just short of 'crestfallen.' "Oh well... it's all found money anyway." And with that, the bills are charged with pink energy and several of them are flung at once, on collision courses with several of the remaining robots.

Quick movements are definitely a trigger for the robots. Lynette's quick movement bring a strafing of laser fire which crosses with the shots aimed at Jono. The shots at both of them are much more serious since they are not running away from the scene.

For its part the robot at the door fixes the two neon green lights that pass for its eyes on Heather. And in a voice that is surprisingly child-like for such a big hunk of metal he says, "Sorry Lady but I can't let you delete me. And my mistress did not program instructions on hurting anyone unless they were meanies and you're starting to become a meanie. So I guess I can hurt you then." Heather's manhole cover leaves a definite dent in the small robots she hits and is enough to send them flying a few feet but it seems it will take one or two more hits like that since they immediately fire at the supermodel from the floor with all four of their lasers. From her other side the battlemech takes a step forward but instead of shooting her it takes a swing at her with one big fist. One laser is still aimed at the door while the other aims at the mouth of the alley that Mend is in. "Uniformed superhero alert. Lethal force authorized!" *ZAP* A laser shoots at Mend as she works on preparing her EMP.

Inside the cafe Panic's drawer snaps shut when it detects the change in weight and he calls out, "Hot zone, hot zone, hot zone! Multiple metahumans detected. Time to run kiddies!" And if anyone isn't too distracted by laser they might notices the small, auburn haired woman, who has been crouched under a table watching the proceedings rather calmly, tap on her glove as if she was tapping on a keyboard. Her form is suddenly enveloped in what looks like a heat shimmer for a short moment then nothing. She steps out from under the table and walks up to the robot happy as you please, "Good call, Panic. Just give Delete a moment more to deal with the super-strong one. Try and do something about the one throwing exploding stuff around, please?"

Okay, so all of this gives Heather a bad day. She really isn't looking out for herself at this point. That's not what she does. But she acknowledges Mend. "Gotcha. Look out!" She calls as she sees the robot heading for the mouth of that alley. She hurls the manhole cover like some demented discuss, trying to knock the robot's aim off enough for Mend to be okay for now. Mind you, as she does this, she ends up with blaster bolts burning through her abdomen and out her back. And just as she looks down to start reacting to that, the big-ass battlemech bats her with its arm and she is not really immediately visible. "Ow.." Mend hears over the comlink just before Heather ends up through the window of the Goth store and sprawled atop a rack of black tops. "Huh... nice fabric.." she mutters as she feels her cheek against one, barely holding onto consciousness.

Cue one shredded MTA bus stop!

Lynette hunkers down as laser fire and shrapnel fly everywhere, doing a number on her clothing and causing no shortage of cuts and bruises. Each hand comes up to protect her precious face while a scream of terror comes from the bus stop, but when it's all but slag, she grabs her bags and bolts!

Its a damned good thing she didn't wear heels today.

Meanwhile, in the Goth shop, Heather comes crashing through and the shopkeep wakes up, screaming. She's pawing at something in the air before realizing that the nightmare shed been trapped in (by Lynette, the elusive Dreamraker) wasn't real! Instead, she dives back beneath the counter and just sobs terribly.

Lynette books it as hard as she can, cigarette long since forgotten, until she goes tumbling over a curb and strikes her head right into the fender of a parked car. And then she, as well, is out like a light.

Okay. It's done, but as Mend reaches to activate the EMP...the laser blast hits her in the chest. She actually moved into it...Heather would have got it diverted if it hadn't been for unfortunate timing. She blinks once, then slams her hand on the button, activating the EMP before she crumples to the ground. She barely cries out...and she's not bleeding at all, but she's clearly down. Those who don't know her might be a little bit upset.

Here and there now, a ghostly figure keeps fading to about half transparency, still see through but at least noticeable, then back to nothing. It almost looks like she's blinking around the battlefield in fact, flashing visibly here, then there. Each time she wears a new face, most often mocking or taunting while staying very close to the robots. She might pose with her arm around one, or stick her tongue out at another.

She'd used tricks like this on gangers to get them to shoot each other, but this was the first time she'd ever dealt with robots! It was time to see if these bots were smarter than thugs. This suffices until she hears the big guy talk. She doesn't even notice recent attempts to attack her, looking a little awestruck at the sound of the big guys voice.

With a girlish squeal she drifts suddenly into the air, whatever mech she was harassing completely forgotten. Not once during this whole charade has she been solid, and that wasn't about to change, but it doesn't stop her hugging Delete. Arms doing a passable imitation of wrapped around one of the top mounted sensor camera's her body pressed to, and in some cases through its casing, and the feel of a body warmer than the cold air. She says loud enough for him.. er.. it... thing.. to hear her, still speaking in that super whispy voice "Awwwww! You know you have the CUTEST voice! Do you think? Can you do whatever you want?" However Delete moves, she shifts and sways along with him, never solid but making a passable imitation at clinging to his plating or shifting about with him. All the while, little Phan is pelting him with questions about his intelligence.

The good news is that Gambit's mark is unlikely to attempt to collect his money. The bad news, obviously, is that the money is gone anyway. However, the worst news is that Gambit is now out in the open, and people have seen him behaving (barely) heroically. He looks around, but nobody seems to have videotaped it. The secret is still safe.

As the EMP goes off, he lifts his arm up to cover his face, his arm remains there several seconds after the blast has finished doing its thing, just to be on the safe side.

"Zut alors! Did... we win?" Face still covered.

When Mend hits the button of her EMP device two very noticeable things happen. One, the racket of lasers constantly firing disappears as all the remaining small robots just kind of slump in place. This includes both Delete and Panic's cannon, which just kind slump down against their shoulders. The two big robots however, are still active, regardless of how their cannons reacted. Panic seems very unhappy about this, "EMP pulse detected, targeting and offensive capabilities down. Apologies Mistress Button, I am will be unable to comply with your request to 'deal with the one throwing exploding stuff around'. " The last part of his comment shifts from his little kid voice to an exact recording of Button's original request as they step out of the cafe.

Delete is also sounding rather alarmed but in his case not because his weapons are down. Instead he says, "Mistress, Mistress! Environmental anomalies are asking me questions about my programming! What do I do, what do I do!?"

Button herself started to float up into the air as soon as her and Panic stepped out of the cafe. The aura of energy around her shimmers from time to time, mostly just making it really hard to see her actual features. To Jono she says, "This is just a field test. Don't you worry, I'll be robbing more interesting establishments in the future." Then she says to Panic and Delete, "Time to beat a hasty retreat. We did not plan for this large number of superhuman beings. Delete, just run from the anomaly. It doesn't seem able to affect you in any noticeable way." While floating about 20 feet up in the air she taps on her glove again and then tells everyone, "I would suggest running away now. The robots' auto-destruct sequence has been engaged."

Panic and Delete both are already legging it down the street. Apparently the EMP blast also shorted their flight capabilities.

It was only a few seconds difference... but Heather steps out of the window, picking glass from cuts that are healing about as fast as the glass is plucked free. She spies the robots departing, looks down and scowls. She says, "I'll pay for this in a minute." before grabbing a random piece of black top to wrap about her chest. No need for a wardrobe malfunction on camera. Then she dashes off towards the alleyway. "Mend. The EMP chased'em off. Good work." Pause. "Mend?" And then she turns the corner and bites her lip. "Damn..." nothing like the bitter bite of failure. She spies her teammate's hand resting on the button though as she steps closer and crouches to pick up Mend. "Good work." she says more softly, starting to carry Mend off towards the base so she can recover from the ordeal in peace.

Meanwhile, in dream land...

Dreamraker looks up from her prey, the open body of the man she'd stolen smokes from. It seems that when she was knocked out Lynette merged the subconscious minds of every person who's lost consciousness out here. Dreamraker's face and arms, clad in velveteen leather, are both covered in fresh blood, with entrails dripping from her lips. She looks down to her victim, around at the bloody carnage of her merged nightmare, then sits back on her haunches with a sigh.

"Damnit. I got knocked out again." She looks over at a few others. "Sorry 'boot this, lassie. Bit of a..." She raises a hand, fingers flailing about in general indication of her brain. "... problem up there with the... merged nightmares and what not... oh, fuck it. Might as well ride this one out til we wake up."

And then she's back at it, burying her face into that open chest cavity before her. Because Dreamraker knows full well what happens when she's caught unconscious in a merged nightmare... the more obscene it gets, the quicker it breaks apart and she'll wake up.

Meanwhile, in real life...

Lynette's eyelids flutter, then dart open, realizing quickly that the nightmare was over almost as fast as it began. "Oh, fuck." She reaches back to grab her head gingerly. "Bloody.... hell!"

Phantasma looks at the robots controller as she steps out of the cafe, perhaps a little disdainfully. Like a child noticing an adult coming to spoil their fun. it isn't very long however before this sours further into a rather insulted look. By this point she's stopped pretending to hold on to the robot, and crosses her arms at her chest.

"Who're you calling an anoml.. anyma.." she stumbles lightly, then stomps her foot soundlessly in the air "Who do you think you're calling names?"

Alas, this is long enough for cutebot 3000 ton to start jogging down the street and away. "Hey!" she turns to it, then rounds only to find Button herself levitating up!

This wasn't worth pursuing it seems, as she stands there. Well... floats there... The warning of self destructing robots ignored, Phantasma drifts down towards the ground, and her fun gone, only now starts to take in whats been going on around the street.

Phantasma fades from the street, and drifts off in search of a little more... fun... before she heads off for a nap.