Don't Mess With Our Children!

January 19, 2015:

A group of mercenaries have taking advantage of the recent chaos to kidnapped some super power children to sell as sex slaves and child soldiers. They expected for some heroes to show up and crash the auction.

Auction House

A secured warehouse located near the docks.

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

Auction

From the outside, it just looks like yet another warehouse down by the docks
in New York.

But on the inside…

On the inside, there's a big difference.

Well, maybe not so much. There are a large number of crates and boxes. But by
and large they're all towards the 'back' of the warehouse. And over near
them, there are a few forklifts ready to move things about.

On the other hand, one the east and west sides of the warehouse there's two
different 'stages' set up with podiums. At each podium there is a guy in an
expensive looking business suit just standing there, waiting for the 'fun' to
start.

But what about the 'front'? Well, aside from that being the point where
everyone enters, there's also a large bar serving all kinds of drinks,
alcoholic and non, as well as a few other… Substances, for anyone who wants
to 'indulge' a bit while they wait for what ever they're after to come up for
auction.
+---------------—+
Contents:
Lunair
Morien
Green Arrow
Star
Miss America Chavez
Obvious Exits:
<O> leads to FRP Ready Room.
.
Since the attacks in the three cities, they have been a significant rise of Amber Alerts. Most of the children have been returned to their parents, or a surviving family, but there are 15 children that are still missing. One of the children is obvious a mutant by his Amber alert that shows a orange skinned kid with thick glasses. The word of the street that the rest of the children have superpowers too, and a group of mercenaries have kidnapped the children to auctioned them off tonight.
The auction house is going to be filled with people looking to use the children as members of their own personal armies or sex slaves. If anyone is able to find the building, the building is protected by a cadre of armed guards on the outside.

Lunair slash Armory (no, not the kind of slash on Tumblr) is only able to emerge for small periods of time, and even then - only carefully. The back of her head still aches angrily, and there's definitely a swollen bump. She's sort of sour about shield users at the moment. And sadly, her car had been exploded. Buying a new one would leave too much of a trail for now, so dark purple Vespa it is! She is all bundled up, with a scarf up to her nose wrapped around and even a long, military style coat. The ruffles seem to be next to nil.

And for better or worse, her having to hide has left her out of the mercenary loop of late. Her path takes her through near the warehouse. Probably near enough to get waved at or eyed by a guard.

Upon hearing about this rather suspicious collection of missing children from Intel, and despite two fairly recent injuries, May volunteers to go in and hopefully find a way to get the children out and back to their families. Yes, this is normally the kind of thing Natasha excels at, but she's busy elsewhere.

Dressed atypically (again), May opted to make herself look like a representative from an 'overseas investor', a well-fitted business suit paired with a mandarin-collared silk blouse and decorative (yeah, keep thinking that) hair sticks holding her hair in a tidy bun.

America Chavez is an old hat at getting the latest rumors off the street. Ten years of traveling through the multiverse and finding her own way as a very young girl will teach you that- that is, ten years of traveling as a very young girl who could break bones when needed.

There was a moderate line of people who were currently seeking several degrees of medical attention in direct proportion to how long they held out from telling America what she needed to know. None of it lethal, but none of it pleasant, either.

She didn't hold back when children were on the line. She takes after her mothers in that respect.

She is not wearing her customary patriotic street clothes ensemble- she doesn't want to alert anyone, provided the last 'informant' had given her the right directions- she was all black leather jacket and jeans, the only concession to who she was being the star earrings and the white five-pointed star emblazoned on the T-shirt across her chest. Unlike Agent May, the young hispanic woman makes no pretense of belonging to the crowds that will certainly be inside. Instead, she walks towards the warehouse with a measured but resolute step. There is a cadre of armored guards coming into view.

She smirks and quickens her step. Musn't keep them waiting.

Already inside the building, and currently standing on a catwalk above the warehouse, Green Arrow regards the scum below with a grim look. He has his bow at his side. He hasn't nocked an arrow, but he's ready to. He had found this place after investigating a disappearance, the daughter of a friend of a friend, but these days he didn't quibble with the details. The big boys were handling the reconstruction and the resulting crime wave, but the little details were getting lost, and Ollie is all about the details.

For now, he hid in the shadows, observing, trying to decide how best to deal with the situation. In his right ear, he has a device that looks similar to what Nyota Uhura used on Star Trek, but his is no mere movie prop. It's a targeted listening device, allowing him to hear the local noises of a localised area. With his little toy, he scans the crowd.
One of the security guards keeps his weapons trained on all the people that are supposed to have permission to enter this place. The other guards are making sure the people coming into the warehouse match the right profile. When May appears in line, the guard starts to slide through his pad searching for her profile, but before he can complete his search, Ozymandias interrupts the guard.

Ozymandias calmly states to the guard, "She was a late add on. I did not get time to add her to the database. The guard frowns "I think I should radio…" Ozymandias shoots a fiery gaze, "I have taking this contract on short notice. You will not jeopardize it by with your stupidity. Her client paid a lot of money to your boss to be here. We will not disrespect them. The guard shrinks back and goes to the next person.

Ozymandias greets May and hands her something when he shakes her hand. "I hope your boss will find something to your liking here.

Several guards have left their post to see to investigate Lunair presence in the perimeter. They trained their guns on her as they approach. "Come here. Nice and slow with your hands up!"

Several armored guards make their way towards Miss America Chavez. The lead man calls on his radio, "We got another one here too. If we don't rough up them up too much, I am sure someone could use them for the auction too.

There are about 12 more armed and armored guys inside the building. There is also an obvious super-strength muscular brute guarding a back room. Ollie will get a glimpse of chained up child as people enter and leave the backroom.

Taptaptaptap. Lunair was moving at a pretty quick pace. At least, right up until she's got a guard calling to her. Shit. Her eyes widen a bit. She keeps tight to her groceries and steps over. "Uh. That's pretty serious armament for rent a cops guarding a warehouse…" Lunair seems genuinely puzzled, unaware of Miss America Chavez until or unless the guards are nearby. "What's going on?" She has her hands up. "Party?" She seems tense, though, eyeing them warily.
'
Melinda May nods to Ozymandias and says in heavily accented English, "I am certain he will." Thank you, Grandmother, for so stubbornly refusing to learn English. She folds her hands together as she walks seemingly serenely through the area where the bidders are milling about, accepting a beverage and glancing at something while taking a sip. She keeps the beverage though is clearly nursing it very carefully as she gradually moves to position herself close to that door and the brute guarding it.

Miss Chavez continues to walk. Her eyes on the guards ahead of her, she reaches into her jacket and pulls out a scrunchie.

It might have stars and spangles on them.

Pulling her hair into a ponytail, the young woman stops and crosses her ams within earshot of Lunair as she asks her question.

"Party? Good idea. We need a pin~ata." She looks at the lead man speaking on his radio, and she gives him a certain look. It was the kind of look that, in another part of the multiverse, was followed by a Loki being punched through several concrete walls. "You'll do," she says, and smiles.

As he listens to May, Green Arrow considers her for a moment, thinking about her mannerisms, her posture, her attire, taking every clue he can find, and painting a picture in his mind. But while listening, he spots the traffic going to and from the backroom. He can see a child, chained up, and is pretty sure that most of the other children are back there too. With no catwalk to reach the area, he reaches into his quiver, pulling out an arrow that seems to have two heads.

When he fires it, it first reaches the other side of the warehouse, high enough that few would notice it. It clamps into the wall. Then the other side of the arrow shoots out, a rope emerging between them. It will reach the other side, making a tightrope. With a device from his belt, Green Arrow attaches himself to the role and begins to slowly climb, upside down, to the other side so he might get a better view of the backroom, and get an idea of how to save those kids. Maybe he could save them without the guards knowing. But his luck isn't usually that good.
After getting the go ahead to procure the two women outside for the auction, the armored guards and the armed men begin to work together to secure the two females without distracting anymore attention and more importantly disrupting the auction. Two of the guards pull out plastic zip tie handcuffs as the leader of the guards outside state, "Yes, we are having a private party of private property. We going to hold you until the police arrive to escort you off the property. Place nice, and you will be home before morning. Since they have already dismissed them as not being that much of threat, only one of the seven other guards actually has his weapons raised to fire.

Ozymandias monitors the situation that is going on in the front with the two females, but decides to wait to see if May has made a move yet.

The brute guarding the door smiles a toothless grin at May, before going back to guarding the door. The leader of the mercenary group exits the backroom and heads up the stage. "The auction will be staring in ten minutes. Please, be ready to bid then.

Green Arrow is able to make his way to a better location. From this location, he is able to see all 15 children in the backroom. Some of them are chained to the walls.

Whoa, whoa. A Pinata? Lunair looks to Miss America, blinking. Wow. Someone's big on the stars and stuff. "I - uh." Uh oh. It's about to go down. Lunair's been fighting long enough to recognize that look. That is the look that indicates it is about to go down for srs. She thoroughly intends not to be in the way. She has groceries to get wherever she's going and she doesn't intend to be zip tied tonight. This whole thing seems pretty wrong anyway. Far as Luna's ever known, NORMAL warehouse security consists of some poor sap and his PS3 at unholy hours periodically patrolling. And they damn sure aren't armed like this. Something feels wrong and she doesn't like it.

"Yeah, sure. And I'm the Queen of France," She wrinkles her nose. There's a reason Lunair is banned from PRE-combat dialogue, too. Sleek, futuristic armor that most mercs would give a limb for quickly shifts over her body and it's on like Donkey Kong. She's avoiding going full lethal for now, but she has that cat's head shockwave staff. Which is going to make a huge BOOM as she swings it in front of her. Yes, she launched a shockwave at the guards and the door. But not Miss America's guard. She mentioned a pinata and no one steals pinatas.

Completely unaware of the two women outside, though a faint sound nearly overhead has her faking another sip of her beverage so she can glance upward. Upon seeing a green-clad archer sneaking about overhead, She almost wants to yell at Barton for the even poorer than usual wardrobe choice, but YARP's toothless leer in her direction decides her against that course of action. Ten minutes. She can cause chaos out here now, and hope that's enough time to get the children clear, but she can't really bet on it.

That BOOM from outside, though. THat's a perfect distraction. Everyone else likely turns to see what made the noise. She doesn't. She darts straight toward Fezzik, pulling her hairpins as she does so. Each of them has a dendrotoxin dart concealed in the decorative ends, and yes, she got permission from Weapons Development to snitch a few more from the arrow-making inventory.

It would probably be of little consolation to the guards to know that none of their weapons would have been of use against a young woman who is, among other things, bullet-proof.
The people inside the warehouse were the kind of men and women who would willingly buy children to do despicable things to them. The men outside were the kind of men who would sign up for a job to willingly protect those individuals for money.

In America's perspective, the first group were monsters. The second group? Worse than that. To add insult to injury, they were threatening her with the police?

"Save your call for an ambulance." The star-themed earrings glow with a bright white light, the same light that shines from the star across her chest and, unnervingly, her own eyes.

He probably never saw the kick coming. The amount of strength required to send a man flying like that was formidable, and whatever damage was made by it would only be compounded by the damage caused by the inevitable landing. It is very likely that the man will not walk again. It is very likely that he might need several pieces of equipment for the rest of his life.

Good.

Kicking off the ground, America takes to the air and leaves the guards in Lunair's very capable hands. "Good work. Make sure to knock them out." Or worse. She won't object to worse. Not with these people. She flies towards the door after Lunair's shockwave gets through with it- that shockwave must have alerted everyone, her priority was to find the children inside.

While other heroes may choose to take the direct approach, creating a commotion in the main auction portion of the warehouse, Green Arrow prefers to strike with the skill of a surgeon. He managed to get in through an access in the roof, move across the catwalks, and use one of his specialty arrows to get above the sectioned off backroom, where a good fifteen children are being held, some in chains, others by different means. There's only one guard in the room, plus someone with at least some rudimentary medical knowledge, if the syringe in his hand is anything to go by. The pseudo-scientist seems to be keeping them sedated.

He quickly runs through a number of possibilities, but seeing as the children are already sedated, he chooses one of his sleeping gas arrows, which he puts between his teeth for a moment. He'll wrap both his legs around the cable, then let go with his hands, carefully lowering himself and trying to keep his quiver steady, so none of his arrows fall out.

Then he'll adjust the dosage on the canister before nocking the arrow on his bow and wait for the pseudo-scientist to get close enough to the guard. The gas might still effect some of the children, but if he times this right, it'll knock out the bad guys while leaving most if not all of the victims no worse off for wear. And if it does affect them, here's hoping that his sleeping gas doesn't react badly with whatever sedate they've already been given. He fires the arrow, hitting the floor, and the blue-green haze begins filling an area around the arrow.
By the time the guards realized that their messed with the wrong two women, Lunair has shifted into her armor and swung her shockwave staff. The shockwave immediately takes out several of the guards. Armor and electricity do not mixed, and the shock wave comes crashing through the door. The door does creates the right amount of diversion for both May and Green Arrow.%RRFezzik steps away from the door as he looks to see what cause the front door to come flying open. When May attacks, he is completely caught by surprise. Her hairpins find their mark, but he still tries to swing out her.

Both the guard and the doctor go to the door to see what is going on outside, and that is when Green Arrow's arrow hit. The smoke fills the room and knocks them out. If May is looking at the door, she will be able to traces of the blue haze seeping through the bottom of the doom.

The auctioner and leader of the group gets word that one of his men has just kicked to other side of the building. He smiles politely to the audience, "I am have the luxury of stating that we will be mocking down the price of the items tonight for anyone who helps to kill the heroes on the premise."

The leaders looks to Ozymandias, "What are you waiting for?" Ozymandias smirks behind his mask and throws a concussive bomb at trio of mercenaries going to reinforce the men outside. "I wanted to make sure all of you men were in the best place to be defeated."

There are no reinforcements coming anytime soon to help the men that are outside with Lunair.

Lunair is lucky in that she's one of the mutants who can pass for normal. Right up until she does the whole armor smashy thing. "Rude!" She barks at the guards. She doesn't know about what's going on here, but she does know something is incredibly amiss. She is also incredibly right about May. She KNEW she could kill with chopsticks. Just knew it! Curtains? DEADLY WEAPONS! Who knew!? It's a tragedy she wasn't there to witness the hairpin ownage.

And while she can be great at sneaking in, she's hilariously effective at being a noisy distraction. "… sure thing," She nods at America. After seeing that kick, Lunair's kind of okay with being on mop up duty. Any guard who moves is getting swatted. There might be some broken bones and pretty dire injuries, but no one will be killed. Knocked out, yes. But for her part, it's time for Guard Whack A Mole.

Melinda May leaves the hairstick-darts stuck in Fezzik's limbs, ducking to avoid the swing aimed at her and just BARELY managing to do so. Then She takes a quick running start at the closed door with the bit of blue… something seeping out from under it and takes a step up the wall to gain enough height to turn and land on the giant brute's back and wrap one arm around his neck. It's an attempt at a sleeper hold, and hopefully either this or the dendrotoxin (or both) will kick in quickly enough. If not, she suspects she'll be reenacting that scene from Princess Bride. And she will likely NOT fare as well as Dread Pirate Westley.

The window shatters into shards of glass as America flies through it and into the auction room proper when the auctioneer makes the offer to his 'clients.'

The young woman floats in the air for a second before landing in a crouch, hazel eyes focused with intensity on the crowd of bidders and the armed guards. And then, she focuses on the auctioneer.

"We're going to have a chat," she says to him as she stands up, and she brings one of her boots down in a mighty stomp. The stomp causes a shockwave to spread from America outwards towards the occupants of the room, cement cracking under the power of the blow. She's holding back- while she thought nothing of bringing down the entire building on this trash, she had to find the children first.

Dropping down after the smoke has cleared from the back room, the Green Arrow will immediately set about freeing the children. First, he'll check the doctor, since he assumed that he would unlock the chains while the guard took care of the child, but instead, the reverse seems to be the case.

He frees all fifteen children, laying them down on the floor, propping some of them up against the wall. Speaking aloud, he says, "how the hell am I going to get fifteen sedated children out of this place?"

But there's no time for moping or self doubt. He has work to do. He'll go to the door, trying to block it with some of the chains, and will look to secure it using a cabinet, desk or whatever else he can find in the room. Then he'll address one of the outside walls. He doesn't know what's on the outside of it, but he'll use a dagger to try and cut through the drywall, and see if there's anything that can be done to make an exit.

The men outside are falling down like bowling pins. There are a multitude of situations that these mercenaries have trained in, but battling against a mutant with a shockwave staff is not something they trained in. The armored guards are the force to be put down, and the men with the guns do not fare any better. They are able to get a couple of shots off before the shockwaves put them down.

As Green Arrow works to find one an escape. He is able to notice that the wall that had chains on it is completely weak. After a few minutes with his dagger, he is able to see an alley from the hole he has made. If he is going to drag the kids through this way, he is going to need to make a bigger hole.

The brute is trying to grab at May madly, but he doesn't have Fezzik's combat experience. He tries to punch at May as she sinks the choke in deeper. The combination of the choke and the drugs weaken the punch attempt, and Fezzik is down for the count within a few moments.

Ozymandias is making his way through the crowd of mercenaries and clients, breaking bones here and there.

The auctioneer has no chance of escaping from Miss America Chavez. She picks him and carries him out the window and way above the warehouse.

Well. In fairness, Lunair is pretty combat ready most days and situations. She just wanted to go home - or where she calls home for the moment. They're just lucky she didn't pull guns or something far more lethal. "I really should just kill all of you," She states simply, her voice cold and flat. "But she said knock out…" Lunair skids back, her armor keeping her quite safe. She is indiscriminate against the guards. Guns, knives, really mean blog comments? All of them get swung at. It's a hurricane of shockwaves, creating waves.

"So you're lucky today." Really, she has no problem whatsoever just murdering them flat out. But, knocking out is the agenda. And so anything that is a guard gets swung at, until the movement stops. Until the movement stops…

The auctioneer can probably see his house from up here. The city sprawls below them, the tiny buildings looking for all the world like a vertigo-inducing Diorama.

"Tell me who organized this," America says, one arm extended, fingers holding on to the front of a shirt whose fabric is quickly tearing, "And I might remember to catch you."

Melinda May can't resist. She pauses to murmur to the large brute, "Sleep well, and dream of large women." Then she's back on her feet and regarding the door. She could kick it down more than easily enough, but she doesn't really know what's on the ohter side. Let's do this nice, then. She checks the door knob, not locked. Good. She takes a breath, then … crap. The door isn't locked, but there's something keeping it from opening. So much for doing this gently. She takes a step back, then kicks the door as hard as she can. That's probably pretty noisy on the other side of the door.
"An alleyway? That'll have to do." Green Arrow starts to cut, and then rip out the drywall, insulation, and use one of his trick arrows for the exterior. He's fortunate that these studs are sixteen inches apart, which makes for a narrow, but usable doorway. Once he's got it big enough that he can easily step through and grab a kid on the other side, he'll start lining them up, carrying them one by one to the alleyway. Nobody else seems to be on this side of the building, so he should be safe, for now. It's a bit of tedious work, work that's hurried by the pounding on the door, but that filing cabinet isn't going anywhere, and from one to fifteen, he gets the kids out, setting them down in the alleyway.

Once they're all free, he'll fire an explosive arrow, not at the hole he made, but above it, enough to create a pile of debris that would cover the exit he just made, and hopefully confuse anyone who might force their way through the barricaded door. Not a bad day's work. He got in, got the kids, and all he left behind was some rubble, two unconscious abductors, and two arrows, one in the floor, the other near the ceiling.

Next, he'll reach for the device in his ear, using the gear he's had there since the beginning to make a phone call, "Dig, I've got them, fifteen in all. We're in an alley on the northwest side of the warehouse. Let's get these kids home. From the sounds of it, someone else has dealt with the abductors."
Since the city is in high alert, it seems that even a secretive warehouse draws the attention of the police when people feel shockwaves and see what appears to be a man being kicked in the night air. The police are arriving on the scene, and will make it to Ollie's location before Dingle can pick them up.

Melinda May is able to break open the door, but there is nothing there but abductors and two arrows. Two mercenaries run towards the backroom to try to move the children, but they are going to be greeted by May.

The auctioneer held by Miss America Chavez tries to remain calm as beads of sweat cover his face. "Drop me. You and your friends have already killed me." and with that he pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head.

There is at least one passport and other clues on the unconscious bodies of the men outside by Lunair if she bothers to check them before the police arrive.

Ozymandias pulls out sicklesword and pins down one of the clients. "Mr. Fushido. Your diplomatic immunity will keep you from staying long in jail. You will probably end up deported, but I want you to carry a message to the people that set up this auction."

Ozymadias slashes the man across the face, "Eternal vengeance is coming for them."

Hmm… Investigation, investigation… She might stop for a moment. Pick it up, and pile it with a note: "For the lady who kicked a dude through a wall or someone who isn't a bad guy to take this. PS- if you are a bad dude and take this, I'll end you. Painfully." Scribble scribble. Lunair is in a hurry though, she's already spent enough time on Earth or outside of a safe house. With a huff, she grabs her groceries and bolts for her Vespa. Her armor vanishes, replaced by clothing. How? Not violating comic book codes through science. She doesn't want to ride a scooter at night naked. That's how. She's got to hustle and get to where she is going.

Melinda May sees that the kids are already gone, taken out through that now-collapsed hole in the wall. She picks up the gas-arrow to study, then touches the tiny comm link in her ear. "May to HQ. It's done. Requesting extraction ASAP." And she leaves the room to find another way out of the building.

With the police closing in, Green Arrow makes a run for it. He's not one for sticking around, though he does hang around, on a ledge above a nearby building, long enough to make sure that the authorities find the children. With them secure, and hopefully no one the wiser that the Green Arrow was involved today, he'll phone his friend, "change of plans. The cops have the kids. Time to go home."
'
Oh, and those two guards who were standing just inside the main door? May takes them down quickly and efficiently

Oh, and those two guards who were standing just inside the main door? May takes them down quickly and efficiently, then leaves the building to a plain black SUV that takes off again the moment she's inside, and is gone with that perfect timing that sees the police pull up just a moment later.

"You died when you were stupid enough to mess with kids, cabron." America looks at the dead man with pure contempt, more contempt than she has ever had for Loki. There is blood on her jacket, her face and her hair.

She's glad she wasn't wearing her favorite jacket.

The young woman glances downwards as she flies lower and sees the children, apparently being rescued by a man who looks like Errol Flynn. Another one of those heroes unique to this particular universe, then, she couldn't place him.

With a shove, she lets go of the auctioneer's body so that it can crash unceremoniously through the roof and unnerve any goons who think that they still have a fighting chance. She lands by the front door to see how Lunair is doing- but finds her gone. Instead, though, she finds her message, and the clues attached to it.

She flips through the passport and narrows her eyes. "Russia."

It was a start. Besides, it had been a long while since she had been an international incident.

Kicking off the ground, she flies up into the sky, turning into a blur.

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