| Tear Gas and Glass to the Face | |||||
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| What: Some Croatian mobsters want Domino dead and pick Hell's Kitchen as the place to do the deed. | |||||
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Even assassins have to eat, right?
Domino and Jocelyn are seated in the back of a cafe and have just finished their meal in Lower Metropolis' Hell's Kitchen. Just as the door swings open, a black van pulls up onto the street slowly. It has tinted windows, covered license plates, and painted over detailing and rims.
There are certain complications in having certain lines of work and being unique in appearance. There's also certain complications with having a student out in Hell's Kitchen. But, what could possibly go wrong! Domino and Joce will be in and out of this part of town in no time, and she knows of this one diner which is really worth the trip to visit again.
The thing about good diners? Other people think they're good, too.
She's just having another glug of coffee when the door opens. Cars out on the street is hardly uncommon, but catching a glance at just the right moment...
"Oh, come on," Dom mutters. "I didn't need this today." An almost apologetic look is passed over to Jocelyn. "You let me into your personal business. Looks like you'll get to spend some time in mine."
Well, gee. That wasn't suspicious at all. Jocelyn was in her Veronica Milton disguise right now, having reacquired a fake facial tattoo at some point. She'd gotten a stock of them from somewhere. The teen glances over casually at the door opening, raising her hand up to block the bit of light that comes in as a way of covering the action. She wasn't giving it a detailed look, though she would notice if there was any weird amount of energy or something off about the van. Or maybe if there were just a lot of people in there, like a clown car.
She's got a bit of fish left on her plate, and a glass of water as well. She was going full-on aquatic in her meal today. A glance is spared for Domino as she speaks. "You backed me. I'll back you". That's all that really needs to be said.
Four men in black leap from the car and the door swings open. Naturally, they're carrying submachine guns, with covered faces and malicious intent. They don't even wait or ask for people to raise their hands. They don't even ask for Domino to come out so they can take her and do this someplace more fitting. Instead, they just start lighting up the cafe in an avalanche of gunfire. Glasses burst and the wall behind the two becomes riddled with bullet holes.
Screaming can be heard for blocks. The driver to the van waits impatiently, gripping the steering wheel and wanting this to be over pronto so they can get the hell out of here. Metropolis is notorious for heroes, afterall.
Domino lightly taps an index finger against the side of her mug, mentally counting to herself as she watches things unfold. The van stops. Men pour out onto the street. Weapons come out into the open.
That tapping instantly stops, the merc rapping her knuckles against the top of the table. An instant later and she's throwing herself to the floor, using the table to shield herself from the glass that starts raining down on the pair. What had been a quiet day is now filled with the deafening roar of unleashed carnage.
"Think you can target their van, kiddo?" Dom asks Joce in a raised voice. "Kill their mobility, but keep yourself safe!"
The guys outside are offering the cover. The men that entered are going to come in and try to flush them out. Only one way to stop that from happening. Out come her pistols, kicking against the wall to launch herself out across the floor on her side until she can get a clear shot at the guys already inside of the diner.
Much like the others, she shoots to kill. Unlike the others, she bothers to aim first.
Jocelyn charges herself up, focusing on agility and toughness. "On it, and I've told you what I think of guns before". Mainly that they can't harm her. The girl starts moving quickly, a bullet that came in through the glass striking her in the forehead and harmlessly bouncing off her and onto the floor. She darts outside and looks at the van, pulling in raw kinetic energy. She aims an invisible burst directly under the van and sends it out in a powerful kinetic burst, attempting to blow all 4 wheels off the van without causing an explosion. If it works, that should kill their mobility.
"She's got her guns!" yells one of them as Domino makes her way on her side along the floor. Almost in unison, the men throw canisters of tear gas and hide behind the counter wall from the oncoming anti-heroine.
Meanwhile, Channel channels some energy and attempts to fry the wheels of the van. Unfortunately, her blast must go through the windows, which causes a major explosion of glass blowing out everywhere. Out of the many bystanders on this street, one particularly unlucky one catches a face full of glass.
Things have gone from docile to loud, and when there's a lot of loud in this part of town, the heroes come running.
Superman lands, just outside the fray and tends to the bystander, pulling him to the side. "I'll put in a call to the paramedics, sir. Just hold tight. You're going to be okay."
"Of -course- I have my guns, idiots!"
Hmm. Teargas. This..might be a problem! These guys aren't completely incompetent, seems as though someone funded their operation well. Domino's not aware of the incoming superhero in blue and red, smoke and automatic fire works well to kill one's sense of visual clarity. As the canisters clatter inside of the diner she goes with the only option she has, making a mad dash for the opposite side of the building. Front door's out of the question, they'll have it covered. Her best bet will be through a window.
This is gonna hurt.
While running she sweeps her arms out toward the ruined windows, shots rapidly slamming out of her pistols back at the opposition. Hit or miss, it'll help cover her retreat.
"Channel, can you get the window to my twelve!" If Joce can blast it out for her she won't have to waste time putting bullets through it, followed by a shoulder. Plate glass -hurts!-
Grumble grumble stupid glass. Channel's face falls briefly when she sees the bystander hurt, and switches tactics. She's outside, so the tear gas isn't a problem for her. Unfortunately, she's not able to do any neat little fan tricks with her energy either, so that tear gas is something that the people inside are going to have to deal with. Or maybe the Man of Steel can do something about it. She moves towards a couple of the mooks and attempts to knock them out with a well-placed punch to the head. She doesn't have her super-strength pulled in, so she shouldn't have to worry about accidentally killing them. She just wants them nice and knocked out.
Then there's Domino's request. More glass breaking? Really? Channel wasn't high on that option, but Domino needed it. Since she's outside, she quickly darts around to the window as she pulls in enough energy to charge her strength up. Tracking Domino's psionic signature was simple enough, so she knew right where to go. She then simply puts her fist through it, which will keep it from blowing out all over the place and instead make the glass all come crashing down around her arm. As a bonus, her hand is offered towards Domino if she wants a hand out, though it'll get retracted if it isn't needed.
Grumble grumble stupid glass. Channel's face falls briefly when she sees the bystander hurt, and switches tactics. She's outside, so the tear gas isn't a problem for her. Unfortunately, she's not able to do any neat little fan tricks with her energy either, so that tear gas is something that the people inside are going to have to deal with. Or maybe the Man of Steel can do something about it.
Then there's Domino's request. More glass breaking? Really? Channel wasn't high on that option, but Domino needed it. Since she's outside, she flies around to the window as she pulls in enough energy to charge her strength up. Tracking Domino's psionic signature was simple enough, so she knew right where to go, and she can simply move faster with her flight. She then simply puts her fist through said window, which will keep it from blowing out all over the place and instead make the glass all come crashing down around her arm.
Superman walks into the diner with a perturbed look on his face. One person has been injured already and there's four thugs and two heroes he recognizes shooting the place up. Putting his hands upon his hips, Superman shakes his head and breathes inward with a giant sized intake of air. First a little, then a lot of the tear gas begins to be pulled toward him, then into his lungs.
He makes a wince face, almost like he's taken a giant rip of a foul pipe, and then moves a few steps so he's facing the four henchmen. There's a pause, before he shoots the tear gas in their general direction. All four begin writhing on the floor in pain as Superman calmly walks up, picks up their guns, and breaks them in half.
Running seems like a great idea, even as the gas starts getting pulled right out of the diner. That's ..well, unusual. Very unusual. Did Channel discover a new trick? It'll have to wait, she's got a window--
Jocelyn--
Jocelyn's -fist.-
Diving past the other mutant, Domino flies through the remains of the window and drops with a roll to the ground beyond. Where she's already covering her head with the expectation of return fire, it's suddenly gotten to be a lot more quiet out there... Arms uncurl, the merc looking up toward Joce. "Did we win already?"
Pistols at the ready, Dom slowly looks through the windowframe she just leaped through as another chunk of glass gives way and drops with an acute tinkling report. It's hard to miss Superman this time around.
"Um. Hi, again."
Neatly sidestepping out of the way of the diving Domino, Channel glances through the window. Oh, yeah. She'd noticed him before and figured he was immune to tear gas. She didn't think he could actually suck in tear gas. That just seemed like it would be unpleasent.
"Sort of," is her response to Domino. Great. First she managed to overload in front of Superman, and now she managed to peg a bystander. Awesome day there, Channel. This would be one bit she'd leave out when she next chatted with Stargirl about their adventures. Though it does occur to her that Stargirl knows Superman. She thinks. Maybe. There are really way too many people to keep track of.
The teen stays quiet and lets Dom do the talking for the moment, however.
Superman strides out of the diner and looks between Domino and Channel. He looks decidedly unpleased. "Will you put those things away before you get someone killed? We've already got one bystander hurt." He eyes Channel, but then is right back to Domino. "Do you have any idea who these gu--" then the van starts to squeal in a vain attempt at a getaway. "Just a moment," Superman says before zooming off.
Before someone gets killed. You mean Dom didn't actually put any of them down back there? That's a blow to the ol' pride. A snarky expression passes across her face as she puts the iron away, it seems like they aren't necessary at this point and after hearing the other weapons getting broken she'd really rather not have hers share the same fate.
Before she can answer the sound of the van struggling without any tires brings her hairline down into an open palm, slowly shaking her head. "Some people don't know when to cut their losses."
While Superman is busy, Domino looks back to Channel. "I suppose it would be bad form if we took this opportunity to disappear, huh." People that can fly versus people that cannot. Talk about an unfair advantage!
Well, sometimes you just had to face the music. Channel is about to say something when Superman goes off to deal with the thugs trying to get away with the van. Really? Well, points for effort, at least.
Channel looks at Domino and shakes her head. "Even if I wanted to, you actually think I can outfly him?" Yeah. Right. No chance of that happening. "Though what are they thinking. I wrecked the thing's wheels. Not quite sure how I managed to peg some glass though. Must have missed my centerpoint," the girl says with a frown. Usually her aim was better than that. She'd actually managed to not hurt a bystander yet, aside from her manifestation. Well, except the time Cess jumped into one of her blasts, but that was completely not her fault!
A short time later, Superman arrives, shaking his head. "Well this was fun." He chuckles a bit, "Our five friends are all unconscious, police are on their way. One of them said they were here for payback...but he didn't elaborate before I sent him for his nap. Any idea what that means?"
While the actual hero is busy tidying things up, Domino's peering back into the diner trying to put the pieces together. Literally, in some cases. With the enemy weapons lying in ruin she has to visually reconstruct them to get an idea of what they were up against. "Those are A2000's. Croatian." Eugh. "Only one guy still holds any faith in that shoddy hardware. Yeah, I know these guys. Macan's thugs. They didn't like me stepping on their toes before. Do their share of drug imports. Looks like he got tired of waiting and put a price out on me."
She's just glad that they're legit bad guys. The situation could just as easily have been to the tune of 'I stole money from these guys and abandoned the contract, leaving them to the Feds.' Not bad for a blind spot of good fortune.
Listening, Channel frowns a bit. "Macan. Don't know that name". Because, well, she wasn't nearly as up on everyone as Domino was! This guy wasn't based out of Detroit, and she hadn't cultivated that many contacts in New York yet. It did pay to keep your ear to the ground, though. She otherwise, however, listens to Domino's statements, trying to piece things together a little bit. Some stuff was becoming clearer, some a little murkier.
And here she thought Detroit politics were difficult to manage just a month ago!
"Well," Superman gives Domino a resigned look and a fake half smile, "Whoever he is, he's not too fond of you. I'll look into it using the systems at the Hall, but my advice is to be careful. Even more so than usual, if my assumptions are right." As sirens begin to blare, Superman looks back to them, "I'd be happy to stay and talk to the cops. My recommendation is that the both of you scram."
This, right here, is what Dom considers lucking out. Superman could hand both of them their tails if he had half a mind to. Instead, he's giving them both a free pass out of this mess. No strings attached. The pale woman offers a crooked grin in return, saying "I owe you a drink, Big Guy."
She's just about to blitz when some invisible force yanks her right back, sighing heavily as she pulls out -another- wad of bills. She reaches through the broken window and slaps them down onto the nearest table, setting the napkin dispenser on top to keep them from blowing away.
"I need to stop taking you out to eat, this is getting expensive."
"Thanks," Channel responds. She straightens up a little bit and nods. "We'll order in next time. Come on". And then she'll start making her way off, away from this little mess.
Superman chuckles to Domino, "I don't drink anything crazier than Ginger Ale. At least, not when in the cape." He gives her a nod and Channel a wave before heading back to discuss things with the police. Something about that pair tells him they want to avoid any sort of police entanglements.