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Summary: A stolen police car, a mad dash across a bridge, and a showdown result in a lot of collateral damage.
Date: June 28, 2011
Log Title: Nothing but Good Intentions
Rating: R (LV)
NYC- Brooklyn Bridge
Spanning across the East River is the Brooklyn Bridge connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan. Its one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States and was opened for use on 1883. Two yellowish towers span up on either side of the bridge. At night the bridge can bee seen lit up with lights across the top cables of the bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge is designed for bikers, pedestrians and automobiles. There is a bike and walking track in the center for those who just want to walk up and enjoy the view from the river.
It's late evening, and in the Avenger Mansion, the computer systems are still scanning the city, looking for signs of Mindbender and Upgrade — or Patches. The chatter is incessant, and for the most part unrelated and irrelevant, however interesting it might've been under other circumstances.
Then there is something different. An urgent report on the police networks; a stolen vehicle is ripping up the streets at high speed, weaving in and out of traffic and using the wrong side of the road too often for comfort. The vehicle in question is a police cruiser, brazenly snatched from a crime scene, where the trunk was being loaded with evidence from a weapons smuggling case. Two police cars in pursuit had suddenly crashed into thin air, leaving two cops on their way to the hospital, but alive, leaving the purloined cruiser free to pick up speed, watched only by a news helicopter.
In another part of the mansion sitting behind a desk going through a stack of papers tall enough to rival the bureaucratic documents a Vogon would need to make a decision, is Stark. There's nothing sensitive to national security in the stack of documents so when the extensive computer system of the Avengers picks up the situation plaguing the NYPD at the moment Tony leaves his paperwork behind to fly out of the mansion to catch up with the reckless driver.
A communication is sent out to the NYPD that Iron Man is on the way to intervene, and another message goes out to those Avengers in the area that he's heading to the scene with an eta of two minutes as he flies through the cityscape.
The car continues to pick up speed, and in the intervening two minutes it exceeds on hundred and fifty miles an hour, and reaches the Brooklyn Bridge. Along the way it encounters a dump truck, head on; the front quarter of the truck is crushed, and the vehicle spins out of the way as the stolen cop car continues on, apparently undamaged. Bystanders in the wake of its passing help the truck driver from his seat, and someone calls an ambulance; but the car keeps going. At the wheel, whatever aspect of the Nightmare that motivates Tabitha to do this is very real, at least to her; she drives with a hard, serious expression. After all, she's on a mission.
Passing overhead it's easy to follow the path of chaos to the source. The citizens of NY are taking care of their own and have already called for help in the case of the truck driver so Stark focuses on gunning it over the bridge. Cars are swerving out of the way trying to avoid the speeding car. Some vehicles crash into each other as others have nowhere to go. Flying past the stolen cop car the armored Avenger lands quickly weighing a few options before deciding on the least catastrophic. Physically nothing can be seen by any of the innocent people in their cars caught in a state of panic but what is happening is that the cop cars engine is being worked over to bring the car to a stop. It won't be abrupt as he's not that cruel yet but it will slowly break down to come to a stop a few feet from him if all goes right.
The cop car does indeed start to slow down; and the plan seems to be working quite well, until something abruptly goes wrong as one of the tires blows. The car swerves back and forth, and then abruptly skids sideways. The back end clips a Toyota Camry, eliciting screams from the occupants; and then the cop car is tumbling end over end through the air. It lands on the roof, shattering the windows and leaving a trail of sparks as it skids down the road, and careening well past Iron Man. It eventually hits a pick up truck and rolls again, finally coming to rest on its wheels. No sooner has it stopped moving, perhaps a hundred feet from the metal-clad Avenger, than the driver door is smashed off its hinges from within and out tumbles Tabitha, clutching a G36, sporting two magazines duct-taped together. She tries to stand, but collapses to her knees once more, pulling the trigger in the process and spitting several bullets into the engine block of a nearby semi truck. On the second try she stands up, and brushes her hair back out of her face as she starts walking towards Iron Man. "Hi Dad," she calls out. "Come to see your little girl?"
Though the Camry is clipped scaring the poor people to death they're fine physically as is the person in the semi that had it's engine turned into swiss cheese. Impassive through it all Iron Man hasn't moved from where he initially landed and even now remains a four billion dollar statue in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge. A deep mechanical voice replies, "Sorry to burst your bubble kiddo but I'm not parenting material." People in nearby vehicles are either paralyzed with fear or getting out of their cars to run away as fast as their feet can carry them. "Put the gun down, Patches. We've been through this before."
"Oh, yeah? You've got that part right at least. What kind of parent tries to shoot their little girl in the head while she's sleeping?" Patches continues walking towards Iron Man at a steady, almost purposeful pace. "You were supposed to protect me! You were supposed to keep me safe! What the fuck happened to that? And now you're in league with Marvin. Really, Daddy, that's low, even for you. And I don't know how you managed to get Mr. Stark's Iron Man suit, but you've left him in rough shape in the process, but at least he's still been able to tell me what to do." She raises the G36, and couches the weapon against her shoulder as she comes to a stop, around fifty feet away. "So I'm gonna give you one chance. You don't have the right to wear that armor. You're not half the man Tony Stark is, and if you don't take it off right now, I'm gonna peel it off you, one piece at a time. And then I've got a mission to complete — Iron Man gave it to me and it's important, and like hell am I gonna fail him!”
A quick scan of the area shows where innocent people are pinned down in case this situation escalates and he needs to move to protect them. Tabitha rambles on in her insanity and he lets her do so as any good villain must have their grand speech before their inevitable defeat. "Got a question for you," Stark says calmly. "Do you honestly believe that your father could get Iron Man's armor? C'mon Patches, think. I'm truly touched that you believe I'm the man but you've got your marbles all jumbled up kid." A little tweak here, and a snap there and the gun will be useless to her the moment she attempts to use it. There are some advantages to being him.
Tabitha's eyes narrow, and she sets her feet in a well practiced shooter's stance. "Yeah, I love you too, Daddy," she spits. "No I'm not about to come with you and let Marvin cure me. Cure? Fuck you! Your 'cure' was a magnum round in the brain pan, I'm not an idiot! I'M THE ONE TRYING TO CURE EVERYONE ELSE! I'm the only one who can — The *real* Iron Man told me so! So did Timeslip!" Her words almost jumble over each other as she rushes her speech, rage and anger and a clear effort to hold back tears entering her voice. As she finishes, she grits her teeth, and gazes down the scope on the G36 before pulling the trigger. A baritone staccato and brilliant muzzle flash accompanies a small hail of bullets that streak through the air towards Iron Man; perhaps ten in all, before something in the gun finally snaps, and the weapon jams. The rat girl fiddles with it for half a second, before throwing it aside with a disgusted snarl. There are no words, as her body is wreathed in fire, and she pushes off into a headlong charge towards Iron Man.
"Who do you think you are? You really think you're in control? I really think you're crazy." Iron Man offers up helpfully as Tabitha rages at him then opens fire. The hail of bullets that manage to escape the gun thankfully come right at him and do no harm as they simply plink off his armor landing in a harmless pile at his feet. Sensors report the change in Tabitha as she barrels towards him sheathed in fire. Heh. The tips of his gauntlets pop open unleashing streams of flame retardant foam at the oncoming fiery rat.
Tabitha doesn't answer, other than to continue barreling down the roadway towards Iron Man. The rat girl runs maybe half the distance, before leaping off the ground and flying, gathering speed sharply as she approaches. Fortunately, the cars in the area seem to be largely abandoned, as numerous fuel tanks explode in Tabitha's wake, filling the air with billowing clouds of black smoke and an oppressive, red-orange glow. As Patches encounters the fire retardant foam, it splashes harmlessly off an invisible bubble around her; a force field, courtesy of Vance and the powers borrowed from him, which leaves the rat girl cruising forwards still, at the best part of a hundred miles an hour.
Any nearby fire is sucked inward towards Iron Man and converted into energy that is stored in the cells within his armor. The haze of choking smoke is unfortunately something that he can not alter, which will be troublesome to anyone caught in the moving cloud, though he himself is not truly crippled by it. Knowing that she has come in contact with Justice in the past forty-eight hours Iron Man employs a sonic blast at the oncoming target attempting to short her out long enough that she'll loose control of that force field and quite possibly drop like a stone.
The sonic blast passes through the forcefield easily enough, and assaults the heightened sensitivity of Patches' hearing. The rat screams out loud, and the forcefield wavers, as does her flight path; but sheer momentum carries her forwards nonetheless. By the time she crashes into Iron Man she's managed to get some semblance of a forcefield back up, even if only just enough to stave off major injury. She careens off Tony Stark's armor, and rolls ungracefully across teh pavement, until slamming into the side of a buick sedan and coming to a stop. She lies there for a moment, and shakes her head as she gets back up to her knees. She clutches at her head, and a trickle of blood drips out of each ear.
As with any spur of the moment non violent decision the sonic blast worked as intended though it left Stark open to taking a rather nasty collision. Falling backward like a domino the armor clangs loudly on the pavement rattling the man inside the suit. Blinking once, twice, and then sitting up ever so slowly, "Anyone get the eight hundred number on that semi that just hit me? No? Didn't think so." Turning around hands to the pavement he spots Tabitha down about 20ft away from him. Climbing first to his knees then back up to his feet the gauntlets glow a bright yellow as they power up. "Stand down! Stop this nonsense before I do something I'll regret!"
Slowly, Patches rises back to her feet, and her hands drop back down to her sides. She turns slowly, facing Iron Man once more, and shakes her head. She stomps one foot on the pavement, experimentally; and then she turns and hurls a telekinetic bolt at a car, smashing the side of it in and blasting out the windows. As she turns her face back towards Tony, her face contorts into rage, and she balls up her fists in front of her. "NOW I'M DEAF YOU ASSHOLE!" she screams, her words slurred and not quite correctly pronounced. She screams wordlessly, a high-pitched and pained howl; she gestures towards two cars, one to either side of her, and then turns her palms upwards. The cars lift up into the air, and then they hurtle through the air, one following swiftly after the other as the telekinetic Patches flings them at Iron Man, as hard as she can.
Tony hovers off the ground in time to catch one of the cars sailing backwards several feet then the impact of the other car strikes sending him even further away through the air. The damaged second car makes a pitiful sound as the horn blares then crumples down onto the pavement. Still in the air Iron Man lowers to the ground setting the car down quickly though as gently as possible which sets of the cars driver side airbag. Though he registers that he's caused Tabitha considerable harm he hasn't the time to react on a personal level. This confrontation needed to end yesterday.
Blood drips onto Tabitha's shoulders; it's a steady trickle, but at least it's only a trickle. The damage done to her will heal, but for the moment, her hearing is exceptionally poor at best. Two more cars lift up, and hover in the air beside her. "Why do you keep hurting me?" she shouts, her voice still slurred. "I loved you! I trusted you! And you tried to kill me in the night! Why didn't you protect me? Why don't you love me?!" Tears trickle down her cheeks, glistening on her fur. She yells, and hurls the two vehicles at Iron Man, just as before; and then she's in motion, following them up as she approaches. She lets loose a telekinetic blast, raw energy aimed at the Avenger, before coming to a stop on the ground within range to strike with her hands and feet; and strike she does, whirling her leg around in a wide, powerful roundhouse kick, strengthened by telekinesis and a forcefield to protect her calf from the impact.
The words roll off of Tony like rain drops slipping down a pane of glass. He knows her past, he knows that her mind is borked, and there's not much that could be said to bring her out of her delusions. Distract her for a time perhaps but with cars sailing at his face again he's not got time to engage in manipulative banter. Car one caught he uses it like a bludgeoning weapon to drop the next incoming vehicle and the telekinetic blast strikes the crumple of mangled vehicles causing a minor explosion that sends Iron Man backward landing on his feet. Tabitha is there in the next minute launching her vicious kick which is blocked by a raised arm. As a counter move a fist is thrown towards her head breaking through her protective force field.
The punch catches Tabitha on the side of the head, and knocks her to the ground; but even though the force field couldn't prevent it entirely, it at least saves her from unconsciousness. The rat squeaks pitifully as she goes down, and she clutches at her head once again as she stands up. "You know what the worst part is?" she asks, still slurring as she backs away. "I still love you." She backs away a step, and her face crumples with emotion. "So fuck you!" she screams with a ragged voice. Patches turns, and runs down the street, before lifting off the ground and rocketing through the air. She keeps low, using vehicles for cover as she moves; right up until one happens to be in her way, and she has no choice but to shove it out of the way to avoid a collision, and in so doing sends it flying off the side of the bridge. And it happens to be a school bus; with a bunch of kids in it, no less.
Tony catches Tabitha upside the head though it was not enough force to take her down. She staggers, exclaim then races away from him. Hovering off the ground he gives chase only to watch in horror as she flings a bus full of children on a summer field trip off the Brooklyn bridge. Racing off the side of the bridge down towards the waterline Iron Man gets underneath the bus taking the impact head on. The front end of the bus crumples while children scream, the poor bus driver faints, and Tony's feet are only several feet above the water line. "It's alright kids. Everyone hold onto the seat in front of them and stay still ok? I'm going to take you guys back up." As promised the bus rises slowly up over the bridge to be gently placed down onto the pavement again. Taking a look in the direction Tabitha flee'd in he sighs heavily and alerts all of the pertinent organizations that Patches has re-entered downtown. "Everyone ok?" He calls to the children as he stands next to their bus watching them all nod as best they they can even though they're terrified. A school bus full of children, and a handful of lives were saved though the one he'd intended to save was still in peril.
