2014.05.19 - Deadly Nostalgia

The evening has started out quietly enough with the bars and restaurants around Metropolis University doing a brisk trade with their normal patrons. In other words, the streets are fairly busy with a variety of different students already well on their way to drunk interspersed with a few older staff members and tourists.

Well Clint is out among the grounds. He is a bit older then most of it and tends to stand out due to the duffle bag on his shoulder, with a faded SHIELD insignia. He is leaving one of the restaurants after getting in a decent dinner. He glances around the crowd then puts his shades on.

Dressed in a white hoodie over a black t-shirt, Zack's not overly dressed although he does stand out a bit due to his age. The youth runs fingers through his dark hair as he looks up to the sky, blue eyes blinking slightly behind his glasses. "Another day..." he mutters a bit under his breath before moving on.

Well, Heather doesn't get drunk. She can't. It sucks sometimes but she's learned to live with it. Not like she has much choice! She's spent a lot of time here in this area, around the students and other young adults where her relative youth tends to blend in. It also helps her avoid paparazzi at times. She's got a hat on that does draw attention from the locals.. usually in a negative way, but she's from the Midwest, and has -no- problem accepting that attention as the price for wearing her St Louis Cardinals baseball cap. She sits at an outdoor table for a local coffee shop and sips a White Chocolate Mocha Latte with a bit of Caramel added. Coffee? Yeah, there's a little bit in there somewhere.

The relative quiet of the almost weekend night is slowly interrupted as people start taking notice of a trio of green lights zooming down from the night sky, resolving into what looks like a giant oceanic ray made out of quicksilver. The center of its 'nose' is basically one large green neon light, the same color of the two smaller ones, one on each tip of the wings. Instead of a tail at the back it has what looks like one large antenna towards the front top of its body, glowing with a lurid orange light.

At first the large UFO goes unnoticed by most of the people on the street as it floats some 20 feet above, its antenna swinging from side to side. Up until two bright rays spear out from its 'wing tips' and spear a redhead girl in a tank top and shorts. For a moment she seems frozen in space then she just disintegrates. The remaining mist is pulled back into the manta, which grows a tiny but noticeable bit as it absorbs what used to be an attractive young woman.

Smash cut: In a dark room lit mostly by the light coming from the multiple monitors in front of her Button is furiously typing away at her keyboard. The majority of the screen as showing a composite image of what the manta ray is seeing. The last two monitors show two different things: one shows a wire-frame of the manta pinpointing its various systems and subsystems and exhibiting their status. The other shows a constantly streaming chatter of code. And Button is yelling at all of them, "No, no, no! You're not ready for a field test. /Why/ won't you listen!?No! Don't assimilate humans yet! That's too much attention!"

Wow odd flying metal critter, this is a job for a superhero, luckily Clint is one. he slips back into the restaurant and ducks into the rest room to change into his gear, which was in the duffle bag. Once ready for action he heads back out into the crowd ready for action.

Sip, sip, mmmm.. good coffee. Heather reaches for her sixth cookie on the plate she had before her. Then... uh... her blue eyes traverse left, then right, as she sees others reacting to something. She then follows their gaze and swallows her bite of cookie. "You've... got to be kidding me...." she mutters. She reaches up to her ear, realizing that her Titans earbud is still sitting on her kitchen table where she last left it. Cursing under her breath, she sighs and stands up. She has a weird sense of priorities... she left her comm at home, but has her Starksuit in her purse. The thing is made to be able to crunch down to tiny proportions, and she whips that thing out... inserting one arm into a sleeve and engaging the auto-dress function. The thing flows over her almost like a liquid. In moments, she reaches up to take off her hat and the suit's mask forms about her face, leaving her hair exposed. That blue and almost silvery white substance covering her entirely. "Let's go give these UFO's a warm welcome." she mutters as she starts stalking forward... pausing to reach out and grab the last cookie. She has a feeling she's going to need the calories.

Alien invasions? Oh this is so not Zack's day. He doesn't have time to change right now. Taking his glasses off and throwing through a port of blue light, the boy can at least uninhibit his ability to see clearly. His eyes scan the flying metal beasties for a trace of magic,"Really... Techno nonsense. What are they flying cyberrats?"

In the time it takes the heroes to get ready the manta has disintegrated two more people. An older man dressed in a tweed jacket, who was the very epitome of a college professor and a well-built young man that heroically jumped in front of his companions when the manta turned its attention on their group.

In her lair Button is frantically trying to regain control of her disobedient robot. The screen showing the manta's status wire-frame pops open little windows as the heroes starts showing up while the composite image of the manta's viewpoint shows a reticule scanning over the costumed people: "Clinton Barton. Costumed hero. Expert archer. Class D threat. Heather Danielson. Bodyguard. Costumed hero. Healing factor. Super strength. Class B threat, primary target."

The same information that comes out of Button's speaker also resounds along the street where the action is taking place as the manta scans and identifies the threats around it. Apparently the young boy in the white sweatshirt is not in its database because no attention is spared for him as the antenna on top of the manta points at Heather and shoots an orange beam of energy at her. Simultaneously little dots of quicksilver flow out from the manta's body, immediately forming into miniature versions of the manta and orienting on Clint.

Clint Barton harumphs, "Class D threat? I am an Avenger for mercy's sake." he then launches on of his explosive arrows at the main manta ship. "Class d that." He says as he starts to make evasive movements to avoid the mini-mantas.

Okay, what's this then? Heather raises a brow and then the beam is fired her way, "Hey, hold up a se.." she begins, lifting her hands up in a defensive posture. The ray strikes her sleeves and is dissipated. Apparently, the person behind the robots doesn't know about her newfangled Tony Stark designed suit. She feels the heat, but not painfully so as it is dispersed along the suit's surface. "Hey, I love this thing!" she calls out as she starts running towards the nearest robot. "Now, come to Mama!" she adds.

"Least they thought you were a threat." Zack says as he steps up alongside Clint,"I guess we'll have to show them..." He says before pulling a rock and a feather from his pocket. "Let's deal with this." He says before he whispers under his breath and tosses them into the air, and they transmute into a griffon and a giant stone man. "I think these will work best." He says grinning broadly at the pair,"A bit of air and earth magic..."

Hawkeye's arrow finds it mark as she manta begins evasive actions too slowly. Unknown to the hero and only as a side effect of trying to regain control of her creation, Button is slowing the manta's processing as much of its AI's resources are engaged in countering Button's effort. Little red lights pop up on the wire frame in Button's screen showing the damage done by the explosion along with a computerized voice saying, "Hull integrity at 80 percent. Automatic repair sequence engaged."

The heroes on scene don't get this information. Instead they just see beads of quicksilver fly from the manta's fuselage, leaving a gaping hole that quickly starts filling itself up as the manta fires another disintegration beam into the now panicked crowd running away from it in all directions, gathering new material to repair itself. At the same time the antenna shots another beam at Heather, this time in bright yellow, which causes the air itself to ripple in reaction to the heat of the beam.

The manta becomes a little smaller as more mini-mantas join the first set in reaction to the appearance of the golems. "Unknown threats detected. Diversionary tactics engaged." The smaller mantas start shooting thin orange beams from their own antennae, some of them targeting Clint, some of them targeting the golems. None of the targeting Zack.

"Well looks out kid or we might not be threats for long." he dives out of the way of the rays but some of the blast do catch him. thankfully his armored uniform holds up the the heat still hurts a heck of a lot. Clint Barton grunts a bit at the pain as he looks for something handy nearby to use as cover.

On her way forward, Heather had reached to her wrists and cranked her stunners up to max. Lets see how these robots like sudden shocks. She skids to a stop, lifts both arms, and fires a twin volley of five darts from each bracer. The darts are basically high powered tasers pumping out two hundred and fifty thousand volts at max. And she's aiming them for where that explosive arrowhead hit. She does this and then... uh.. well, she hadn't really been thinking evasively. Heat beams continue to track her and she yelps, lifting arms again. This time the material on the arms burns away, as does most of the flesh beneath them. Her shoulders and stomach have much the same effect. But it's already healing visibly. "Ow!" she calls out. Her bracers are temporarily out of service too, but they have self repair systems too! Stark makes good stuff!

Button's tapping away at her keyboard hard enough that it could be considered banging on it. At the same time she's yelling into the microphone of her headset, "God damn it you stupid, retro piece of crap! If you don't come back right now I swear by all that's entertaining in this world I'm going to melt you for scrap!" But the wayward robot is not the only target of her ire, "Fucking heroes/ If they destroy you I won't be able to figure out why the hell you went AWOL! Go away you idiot! You're just making it harder to fix all of this! Defensive measures are making it even harder to crack the AI code! Just fuck off!"

Ignoring the vulgarity and yelling the computerized voice informs Button that, "Hull integrity down to 50 percent. Self-repair sequences inhibited by severe electrical shocks. Repair efficiency down to 70 percent. Redirecting energy to repairs." Not that the heroes know any of this. All they know is that the heat beam that just vaporized part of Heather's uniform and body stops firing. Instead two more people disappear from the crowd as the disintegration beams fire again to gather materials for repairs. And even then the now widened hole is refilling much slower than after Hawkeye's attack and the manta seems to be losing height. The mini-mantas are now milling around their larger sister, still shooting heat beams at Heather and Hawkeye as well as the two golems but clearly running interference, almost serving as a shield for the 'mothership'.

Once the heat is of him so to speak he can focus on the office. He fires a wide variety of arrows at these things just in case they can adapt. He starts with net and putty arrows to move some of the smaller ones out of the way, while on the mother ship he shoots once into each side, the port gets a sonic arrow, while a shocker arrows hits the starboard side. Hawkeye stands up to survey the effects and seems proud of himself.

Well, Heather is down to about 70% of her costume for now, but it is also repairing. It's a good thing she wears stuff under it! It's -designed- to burn off and absorb energy as it does. But that could leave her quite... *ahem* exposed. With the stunners showing errors on their displays, she just shakes her head and dashes over. She's actually practiced this trick many times, and it went so badly, so often... but she is a perfectionist, so when she stomps down on one edge of a manhole cover, it flips up out of its recessed insertion point and she grabs it in one hand. "Eat this!" she calls out, "And stop disintegrating people!" That said, she spins like a discus hurler at the Olympics and calls out, "Arrow guy.. oh wait, you're Hawkeye!" She releases the manhole cover and then after she does so, she adds, "Hey Hawkeye! Any chance for an autograph after all this is done?"

The griffon begins beating its wings towards the robot, sending slicing winds towards it. Zack kneels down and the stone man kneels before him, forming a barrier in front of Zack. The boy begins chanting slightly. He is working on his spell, the air around him palpable with the mystical energy that he's conjuring. The stone man's bulk easily dwarfs him, its skin glistening slightly. He's doing his best to coordinate he activities of the griffon and using its wind magic and the stone figure's powerful earth magic.

The manhole cover caves in the big green light in the middle of the manta's body at about the same time Hawkeye's shock arrow discharges into the disintegrator beam on the starboard side. The sonic arrow is intercepted by two of the mini-mantas which just melt under the attack, the rest of the minis show clear difficulties with the winds created by the air golem. Little spots of molten rock show up all over the stone golem's body but seem to have no more effect on him than a sunburn would have on a human.

Miles away in her lair Button rips her keyboard off the desk and sends it slamming into a wall as red lights start to pop up everywhere on the manta's wire-frame display and the computer voice says, "Irreparable damage to all systems. Self-destruct sequence engaged." Button pops out of her chair and stomps around the room incoherently yelling obscenities for a minute or two before turning back to her screen, "Mark my words. I /will/ get the manta to work properly." With a few flicks of her mouse she saves the images of Heather, Hawkeye, and Zack.

Back on the streets sirens start to fill the night air while the manta thuds to the group, its metal starting to bubble and melt in reaction to the acid that has been released inside its hull, all light now gone dark, the minis pattering down around it like silver rain.

Hawkeye smiles over to Heather, "that is me." he then nods, "Sure I will be happy to give you an autograph.' he then looks at her toss the manhole cover, "Nice work. You got a talent for this he tells her. He then looks over to Zack, "Good work yourself, those friends of yours must come in handy." He gestures to the golem and the griffin.

"Dissolve." Zack says and the figures vanish. Placing his hand to his forehead for a moment, he smiles weakly,"They're handy. They're rather versatile. I have others but they're the most versatile of the lot." He says smiling.

After throwing the manhole cover and watching it impact, Heather places hands on her thighs, bending over as if catching her breath. When she straightens back up, she's pretty much fully healed but her suit needs some work. It's healing but more slowly than -she- heals. "Well, that was... stupid." she mutters.

Clint Barton walks over and says, "Well yeah it seemed random." He sighs, "Would have been nice to capture some of them to see if they really were alien or not." The archer looks over to Zack, "Well glad you are on the right side of things then." he then says, "What's your id?" he says, "I am Hawkeye and I heard the robot thing call her Bodyguard, was it?" he turns to Heather for confirmation. He does not comment on the other more real names the robot mentioned.

"I don't have one." Zack says shaking his head a little bit,"Good to see you again." He says looking towards Heather. His blue eyes go back to Clint,"Never thought of a good name that didn't sound absolutely stupid." He says laughing softly. He runs fingers through his dark hair, pushing it back from his face.

"Heather. Or TKO on the roster of the Titans." says the blonde. She shrugs and takes a couple deep breaths, "I need a burrito." she mutters even as the fabric of her Starksuit repairs itself, growing new material via nanomolecular reconstruction (and other techno babble). She offers a hand to Hawkeye and raises a brow. "I've done some bodyguarding before I joined the Titans, yeah. Still do on occasion. Nobody expects the blonde in an evening gown to be security."

Hawkeye shakes the hand, "Ahh I see, Well then nice to meet you TKO." he grins, "I guess I misunderstood what the robot had to say. It happens." He looks over to Zack, "Well I am sure if we put our heads together we can think of something, maybe Summoner?" He tosses out. "Well I do know a good diner near here, combat always works up an appetite, they have great chili."

"I've got to report to mother and then write a report to the people who run Young Justice for us." Zack says smiling a little bit more. Of course he means writing a report to the Justice League but ah well. He makes a gesture behind him,"I'll see you both another time. " He says in his distinctly British accent before falling backwards through the portal that winks out of existence behind him.

"Summoner? That sounds like a villain, or a bit of a name that's too simple. How about..." Heather pauses, trying to think of something better, and then her eyes cross before she shakes her head, "Nope, never mind, I got nothin.."

Hawkeye nods to Heather, "It is a tough one." he gives Zack a wave as he heads out, "You mentioned wanting an autograph?" He smiles and finds a hands piece of paper to sign.

"Well, you're an Avenger, so yeah, autograph." It's not often that Heather asks anyone -else- for such things. Usually, it's young men trying to bump into her for autographs, paparazzi trying to snap candid shots of her during fights to try to get wardrobe malfunctions, or that sort of thing. She is enjoying the chance to pass the whole fame thing on to someone else for a change.

He grins, "Alright." He then signs it, "TKO, Thanks for the help with the manta ships, your friendly archer, Hawkeye," then underneath it in more of a scrawl that is his normal signature, "Clint Barton." He hands it to her, "Here you go." he winks, "Who knows maybe one day I will be asking for one of yours. The Titans are a good team."

"That they are." says Heather. She snickers a bit at something. I mean, TV specials, Victoria's Secret commercials... yeah, and this guy didn't recognize her. That's awesome! Maybe the costume really -is- helping! It's mostly restored by now, just a couple small tears. But she looks to Zack then and raises a brow, "I guess Griffin Lad is right out, eh?" Clint laughs, "Yeah that is just,.... no." He then says, "I have heard worse after all I used to fight a guy named Bullet Biker but still he is a good kid doesn't deserve a name like Griffin Kid."

"Lad, not kid. If I'm going to come up with an unusable name, it's going to be the worst possible name, hence.. Lad." Heather nods emphatically before looking to Zack. "Got a particular hankerin' for a name?" she asks.

Hawkeye looks over and Zack has run off to do those reports he mentioned. "Well it seems like he decided against our suggestions." he looks over to Heather, "so you mentioned a burrito too?" he grins.

"Yeah, I'm starving. Healing takes a lot of energy, and energy takes calories." offers Heather, "I bet I could outdo you in an hot dog eating challenge too." she remarks matter of factly. But once the suit is repaired, she triggers a reverse transformation, and the nanomachines revert the fabric back to what she was wearing before until all that is left is her bracers... those are taken off and put back in her purse which she lifts and hoists over a shoulder, "God, I swear, I only carry a purse for those things." she mutters.

Clint laughs then realizes something, "Yeah I need to go grab my bag. I will be back in a bit." He then tracks down where he put his duffle bag for safe keeping and slips back into a restroom reemerging shortly as civilian Clint. He walks back over to Heather, "Alright now I am ready for the diner" The bag now on his shoulder, "I need one of those fancy instant change things."