2015-08-04 - MGH Unleashed - Tearing Up the Playground

 This little park is an innocent, carefree place. In the daylight, at least. Around sundown the atmosphere changes considerably. The parents and children disappear, replaced by an older crowd, teens into twenties. And it's not a friendly sort of crowd. The local precinct knows this park well, but has been unable to keep the gangs and the dealers at bay after dark. Calls to respond to a violent altercation are not unusual. "Shots fired" calls have happened from time to time, too.

       The call tonight though was a weird one, and the first responding officer puts in a desperate and rather befuddled call for backup, saying that three young men who are all well known to the police have all manifested new superhuman powers, making for a very one-sided gang fight.



 Karolina is currently flying through the sky, distractedly talking into her cell phone, a glowing trail behind her, "... Chase, just because Old Lace really, really liked the dinosaur movie does not mean she is planning to eat you in your sleep with the clown monsters that live underneath Nico's bed. Molly's already confirmed with her that you're not very tasty. And I'm glad that you remember it, but you don't have to try and set me up with that giant redhead from LA that keeps having her clothes explode off her all the time. Yes she's cute, but you don't even know her name and.." Otherwise, the sudden yells get her attention, "Gotta go, screaming."

       She flies in the direction, quite visible as she goes along at her best velocity given the circumstances.



 Kon-El's generally on the lookout for situations cops can't handle on their own. With his hearing, there's not a ton of reason to actually patrol, but he does it to get some fresh air and, hey, every so often he finds new music pulsing in a club below. Then there's shouting, it having that weird 'echo' quality things shouted out into police radios have for the half-Kryptonian, as his ears hear it at a slight delay rippling out from the source. Makes figuring out the actual source require a bit of triangulation. Or just listening when they shout out the name of the park, that works too.

 He piles on the speed, arriving, bright and primary colored in his body suit and matching jacket at the same time as Karolina.



 The scene is chaos. There are many things one might expect to see in the air over Brooklyn but, generally speaking, a metal children's carousel from a playground is not one of them. Right now, however, one's up there, floating about fifty feet up, surrounded by a soft purple glow. A grown man, another wise tough-looking individual heavily msucled and sproting prominent prison tattoos, is clinging to it for dear life, arms wrapped around one of the bars, body dangling over open air. Down below, standing on top of the wall of the handball court, there is a teenage boy with one hand raised, eyes glowing a matching purple.



 On the basketball courts, a young man has several others cowering. At least, one would assume he's young. It's hard to tell, as he is ridiculously heavily muscled, nearly 7 feet tall, and is swinging an entire basketball hoop (which he seems to have snapped off near its base).



  Over by the playground, there is an upside down police cruiser. Near it, is another knot of people. One of them has drawn a pistol and starts shooting at the nearby shadows, seemingly without a real target.



 Karolina lets out a loud squeak, "Oh my Goodness!" her hands cover her mouth for a moment, and her form glows as she quickly surveys the area. "All right, I'm going to have to ask you all nicely to stop this and let the people go." Quickly trying to assess who is hostile, and who is hostage in this scenario. Wishing Nico were here about now.

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<p class="MsoPlainText">       Her hands flare up, glowing over with innate energy, and she chimes, "Everyone, please calm down.." Ready to start flying defensively if she has to if any of them attack her - that's an easy way to tell, isn't it?

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> Kon is quickly by the side of the man clinging to the Carousel. "Climb on," he tells him, keeping an eye on the floating metal merry go round, blue eyes taking the entire situation in, weighing the threats and figuring out counters. "Maybe you should put the carousel down," he calls down to the teen with the glowing eyes.

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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-indent:.5in"> The man clinging for his life happily grabs onto Kon-El instead of the carousel, but clings just as intensely, image forgotten in favor of living through this. The first on the ground to react though is the man shooting at shadows. Cursing in Spanish, he then yells "There's more of them!" and sends a few wild shots in Karolina's direction. After the man's gun clicks empty, the Oversized teen swinging the torn-up basketball hoop rests it on one shoulder like someone might a baseball bat, then addresses Karolina. His voice has the thick deep sound of someone with gigantism when he answers Karolina, "This ain't your business. Just stay out of this, we've got powers too, now." An odd thing to say, that.

<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-indent:.5in"> The one with the glowing eyes cocks his head, grins, and yells back to Kon-El, "If you insist..." And telekinetically flings the carosel at the Kryptonian.

<p class="MsoPlainText">        Many things are happening at once, and it is suddenly revealed why the man was shooting at the shadows. When his gun is empty a patch of those shadows detach themselves and launch at him in the form that looks like the silhouette of a girl. Nearby, the pool of red spreading from the police cruiser does not bode well for the officer that was inside.

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> Karolina is /not/ bulletproof, so the sudden shots sent her way has her flaring out with her powers, using the sudden razzle-dazzle to make a stroboscopic effect to make it harder to target her as she goes evasive, pulling a quick barrel roll in midair as the shots go past her. Not sure if the man shooting is in a panic or is under attack, Karolina hesitates before attacking him.

<p class="MsoPlainText">       Glowing, hovering about fifty feet up in midair away from the big kid with the 'bat', she goes on, "And you're doing what with them? Ripping up a children's playground? Attacking people? You ought to be -ashamed- of yourself. Let the people go." The directive is given to the man speaking in Spanish and the oversized teen.

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> Kon-El catches the Carousel one handed. It doesn't crumple around him, it doesn't crush under the force. It sits in his hand in much the same way it sat in the glowing field. "Thank you," Kon-El says, and lands, placing the Carousel back where it belongs in a casual display of power. "You should probably run," he tells the large man clinging to him for dear life. He spots the pool of red, scowling.

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<p class="MsoPlainText" style="text-indent:.5in"> The tattooed man does not need to be told twice. He takes off running like he's trying to set an Olympic record. Unfortunately, he doesn't get too far before a whiplike tendril flashes out from the pool of "blood" and trips him up. A few moments later the red pool has become something that at least looks humanoid, even if it is still red and wet looking. The boy who was on top of the handball court jumps down, glowing for a moment as he breaks his own fall, then moves to stand next to the muscle-bound one. That one slams down the basketball hoop in front of him. He doesn’t hit anyone, just scares them mightily. Then he answers Karolina, his distorted voice full of street swagger, "You got us all wrong. We're just cleaning the trash out of our park." He glares at the huddled people he was terrorizing, "And this IS Our Park." Meanwhile, the gun wielder is trying without much success to defend himself from the shadow girl.

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> Karolina is glowing brightly. "I asked you nice twice. Let the people go." She doesn't know what the local situation is - whether this is gang related or just a turf war. But she won't stand to see cowering people bullied. There's a sudden WHOOSPH of acceleration as Karolina hits subsonic velocities, going to zip right past the muscle bound man and blast him with a low intensity light beam if she can, trying to hit him with enough of a blast that would give a normal person a first degree sunburn and hopefully blind him.

<p class="MsoPlainText">       Then Karolina -stops- in midair past her quick energy-strafe of the muscle boy, firing out a solid bolt of light over at the semi-floating one who is busy being cocky. Her blast would have a concussive force to it, designed to blast him back and hopefully stun him wtihout hurting him too badly - but her energy was calculated on a normal human, not whatever this boy was. Holding back.

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> Kon-El calls out to the less experienced her. "Protect the innocents, worry about the meatheads later." When the arrival of a super doesn't immediately distract the teens from their targets, he snatches up the large man, telekinetic field quickly wrapping around him, making him nearly as invulnerable as the half-alien telekinetic. He flies the man to the edge of the park, dropping him off, placing himself between him and any possible attack. "Kinda hard to buy the 'protecting our park' line when you're literally tearing it apart."

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> Whatever the muscled teen might have said in response is cut off by him clutching at his eyes and giving a yell after Karoline's blast catches him. The telekinetic fares slightly better, but mostly because the big guy takes the brunt of the concussion for him, that purple field shifting the big man. Then the field surrounds Karoline, trying to stop her flight. There's a pulling sensation, like moving through a thick liquid, but the boy is simply not strong enough to actually counter her abilities.

<p class="MsoPlainText">       The man Kon just saved, again, goes back to trying put distance between himself and the fight as soon as he can. The shadow girl, having rendered her target unconscious, moves to join the one who looks like he's made of blood. She speaks to that boy in a low tone meant to be jsut for him, unaware of just how good Kon's hearing is. She says, "I feel like I'm losing it. I think the stuff's wearing off."

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> Karolina's speed is that saves her more than any particular strength, her letting out a loud 'OOPMH' as the wind is knocked out of her by the grab and yank. She blasts over at the pair wtih several more energy blasts if possible, trying to keep Kon-El's placement in the skirmish in her mind as well as the other two. "Everyone, this way!" She points in the direction of the police cars and the people who had been cowering on the playground, trying to keep herself in the middle of the super strong one and the telekinetic one and the hopefully retreating civilians, peppering energy bolts at very low intensity and flying evasively to make herself a harder target.

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> Kon-El listens to that, continuing to body block long enough for the thuggish man to get away. Then he's flying towards the shifters, trying to get a hand on them to hold them tight in a telekinetic field.

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> The shadow girl lets out an "eek" as she is hauled off her feet by Kon's telekinesis. Shen she turns her head to see him bearing down. She struggles against the field, and shadows near him rear up like serpents. They strike with what should razor edges, but it isn't his invulnerability that stops them. They just aren't quite solid. The blood shifter doesn't even get that much of an attack off. He struggles and pushes against the telekinetic hold, his form melting and reforming repeatedly, but to no effect. Finally, returning to his human form, he glares at the girl and curses, "I told you not to take it early!"

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<p class="MsoPlainText">  On the handball court, the muscled one has his hand up to protect his eyes, but is pushing towards Karolina, seemingly unscatehd by her bolts. The telekinetic takes a different tactic, hauling up the borken backboard as a shield to cower behind.

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> Karolina calls out at the two, "I don't want to hurt you! Please, we can both stop this." She stops her bolts for a moment, sensing that the pair seem to be afraid then, and is trying to de-escalate then once the civilians are out of the line of fire and fleeing over towards the police. "Just stop."

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> The hold quickly turns into a field, restraining them entirely, the young man used to fighting amorphous villains. "Look, you kids might as well give up. I was fighting super villains tougher than you after a week of being alive. By my first birthday, I'd fought the guy that killed Superman. I'd almost let you go out of pity, but there's someone seriously injured in that cop car, so I'm not in a particularly forgiving mood." He calls over his shoulder to Karolina. "Need help?"

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> The girl who manipulates shadows is starting to look a little less like one herself. Her features are more visible, and the edges of her catch the light. She looks sullen. Blood boy is still fighting the hold hon him, his body a seething, formless mass. The muscle-bound boy answers Karolina, "Hurt me, you're just a glorified flashlight. I'm not afraid of powered types anymore." The telekinetic pokes his head out to yell at his friend, "Just do what she says, man. We weren't supposed to tangle with costumes! That was the whole point, we were supposed to be the scary ones tonight!"

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> Karolina just looks over at the muscle bound boy, and then at his companion. "Listen to your friend. No one has to get hurt here. Things have gotten bad enough." Karolina hovers, glowing but ready to go evasive again if the two attack again. "You've already messed up the place where the kids will come tomorrow to have fun, so I hope you're -happy- with yourselves." She somehow manages to hit just the right bit of sincerity in her comment to not be mocking whatsoever, her face cross.

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> "Listen to your friend," Kon says before turning suddenly, flinging both of the shapeshifter at the bruiser, them out of his hands for an instant before he's following them, following the arch of the toss perfectly as he gets all of the teens into the same area. Both shapeshifters should impact the loud mouth, and, failing that, Kon'll simply punch him. "Respect the S."

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<p class="MsoPlainText"> The shadow girl is caught by the bruiser, and the liquid boy makes a very messy splash. The end result is a tangle of people on the floor. The blood gathers itself up, but is able to be contained again before it can disappear. It's the telekinetic who speaks, "We surrender already. A cheer goes up from the group that witnessed this, and taunts and profanities are hurled at the powered teens. One even yells, "Have fun on the Raft, freaks!"

<p class="MsoPlainText">        The sound of distant sirens announces the backup the cop asked for finally arriving. By the time they are there, the shadow girl looks almost entirely normal. BY the time the police have the scene fully under control, the muscle-bound boy and the blood shifter are looking a bit more normal as well. There was more to this than a few new mutants. What, exactly, only time will tell.

<p class="MsoPlainText"> Kon helps in keeping them contained, and calls back at the nastier taunts. "Hey! Lay off, I'm a meta too, you know!" An artificial one developed in a lab, but, well, he's not going to stand for discrimination, even if it's against tools." When the backup arrives, he helps lead the teens, directing the cops to their injured man in the upturned cruiser. "He's still got a pulse, but it's weak," he says without having ever been closer than 5 feet to the car.