A Charity Gala to End Whatever Important Thing

[ngm_miscellaneous]

New York City high society had been absolutely buzzing over this April's charity gala by a certain Mr. Tony Stark. It was seen as exclusive, or as exclusive as his 200 person guest list could be. Some invitations were a given, like Tony's daughter Alexa, whereas others came from what the party planners figured as the right people to make the party memorable or talked about.

The charity event was for the charitable arm of Stark Inc., Stark International. Despite being for charity, it was also seen as a good way for businesses to be seen and network.

The event was held at the Hudson in the Library and Private Park space. It would comfortably fit the people into its 2,600 Square Feet.

Comments

[pyroprincess]

Stephanie, for her part, stared Marcelo down, in virtually total non-recognition of him. Her expression was one of cold wrath, one he'd never seen in her before.

"Your funeral." She spoke, lowly, in a voice that was not entirely hers, as she sprouted a blazing whip of pyroplasm that streaked towards Marcelo, warping the air around it with heat, cutting through a lamppost between them like it was made out of warm butter.

[ngm_rogues]

In the brief moment of distraction, Insomniac had managed to set up an alternate mirror of himself, which he watched Alex take down- rather brutally.

Well. Try to avoid THAT ONE.

He focused his energies on inciting the crowd against Alexander, like some Bacchic fury of destruction. Would they be able to actually hurt him? Probably not. But let him deal with a few hundred suddenly enraged guests trying to tear him to shreds!

He threaded his way towards the crowd to where Brooke was, handily disguised as a party guest bearing a glass of champagne, which he promptly threw into her face.

"Ooops! Sorry about the face-melting acid! I do that all the time." And then he tried his best to believe that instead of harmless moderately-priced bubbly, that her face was full of face-melting acid.

"And ... do watch for the monkeys.

Yes. The monkeys.

The monkeys will destroy us alllllllllllll." Added to the bits of blood caked from his nose were new drips, as a giant horde of monkeys began appearing out of virtually nowhere to harass the assembled guests in pretty much any way that a monkey could feasibly imagine.

Which was a lot, because monkeys were psychopaths.

That's why Mike liked monkeys so much.

[iced_cherub]

"I Said stop!" Bobbi screamed when she saw the monkeys going for her, bad enough she thought Brooke was hurt. The area around her dropped several degrees as she lost the fragile control she thought she had. The nearest fountain froze solid, catching two of them as she dropped to her knees covering her ears. She wanted to go home, at least she knew the pool could withstand her if she dropped much lower.

[vesper_verde]

"Steph, it's me! Marcelo. Your-" His eyes widened at Stephanie completely and utterly not recognizing him. What had he gotten into here?

Marcelo had put up a bubble of silence around himself and Stephanie to try to contain the sound, make sure it was only his voice she heard. Though basically all the bubble did was keep people on the outside of it not hear the yelp of surprise as Marcelo got out of the way of the super hot whip.

He couldn't touch her. He couldn't do... what? He was a vigilante, not a hero. Other people trained for this. He just had to wing it.

Marcelo dropped he bubble of silence and scrambled toward a fire extinguisher he had seen near one of the doors to the garden.

[hellfire_empath]

There was a moment - maybe three - where Brooke froze and believed that her face was ruined, that half of it was melting off and scarred, and that no plastic surgeon in all of New York would be able to help restore her to her former beauty. She'd be like one of those unfortunate Real Housewives, her face completely ruined and immovable, looking like a cheap imitation of true class and grace.

And then she remembered. She remembered the illusions that Regan Wyngarde had thrown at her, the illusions that her late aunt had thrown at her, the illusions that her grandfather had thrown at her. Years of training, years of lies, years of learning how to sift between them and feel what was real with her emotions.

She tapped into that, and she tapped into the fact that Insomniac was using his powers on her, directly.

With that, his illusory hold over her dropped and Brooke smiled her bitchy smile and stepped towards him again, connecting with him, tapping into the core of his powers and turning it back on him. She'd done it once before, with that imposter Lady Mastermind, and she could do it again against this nightmare of a wannabe supervillain.

"Do you see that?" Brooke asked darkly as she concentrated an illusion around Insomniac. "Those aren't monkeys. Those are elephant. Tall, regal, majestic elephants." Pause. "And they're all stampeding towards you right now, with acid spewing out of their trunks."

[pyroprincess]

Stephanie turned for the moment. The human fool had fled, and she could easily hunt him down later. The strangely resilient one had not yet reemerged. She turned and started walking towards Brooke purposefully.

"Cease your foul magic, witch." Her power formed into a blazing nimbus around her, a halo and wings of pyroplasm that made her hard to look at, much less be around. Every so often, she stomped the ground as hard as she could to gain more power.

Insomniac for his part, noticed the elephants. Well ... elephants. Elephants! Elephants could be dealt with! He could become very small and avoid them! He scuttled out of the way as best he could, the illusion incompletely taking hold even as the illusions he had spread amongst the others at the party had started to fade.

[vesper_verde]

Marcelo tried to keep things straight as he ran and grabbed a fire extinguisher. There were lots of things going on with Mr. Aaron teleporting and throwing people, Danielle being as calm as you please, and elephants. Why were there elephants?

His was not going to question any of it. He was just going to focus on Stephanie. Naked, flaming Stephanie who will just roast him to cinders. This was not in the So Now You're Dating a Mutant Handbook.

He charged back toward his girlfriend with a fire extinguisher in hand. He doubted it would hurt her, but it might distract her. He hoped.

Though when he passed by Danielle, Marcelo got a lot calmer and mellow. His charge turned into a stroll.

"Hey. Querida." Since he was feeling calm, he had no problem remembering to pull the pin, aim the hose, squeeze the lever slowly, and to sweep the nozzle to cover the fire.

[hellfire_empath]

Brooke turned her attention away from Insomniac towards Stephanie. Fine, if fighting the jerk didn't help, maybe this thing she tried next would.

She forced all of her feelings at Stephanie - the warmth of their friendship, her trust, her loyalty, the slight girl crush that she may or may not have had on the other girl, everything. It wasn't true love's kiss, but it was true love of a sort.

That had to mean something, right?

[call_me_phobos]

The illusion had fooled Alexander and he was now extremely annoyed with this ingrate. He was going to send him to Tartarus for his trespass, that was certain.

He was ready to attack Insomniac again when the rest of the crowd turned upon him. They wouldn't hurt him but it was enough to ruin the rest of his suit. Why did people insist on ruining good clothing?

He sighed. This night was important to Brooke and the people she donated to, so Alexander let the people come at him. As they did so, he pretended to go down under the fury of their blows before teleporting himself out back of the building.

I'm seriously becoming far too kind in my time on this plane. he mused.

[pyroprincess]

The fire extinguisher did little except bring up an appallingly huge degree of smoke, against thousands of degrees of heat. But it surprised her enough that she had a few seconds of immobility.

Enough time, that between the slow slipping of the illusions that Insomniac had created and Brooke's demonstration of her feelings, that she returned more or less to normal. The flames disappeared.

There were two things on her mind in the immediate moment. Finding clothes and finally taking out the miserable bastard who had done this to her.

She opted, decisively for the former, turning right back around and stalking after Insomniac, who had lost almost all ability to use his powers, stumbling about blindly, increasingly frightened, because it all was turning badly for him.

He made a run for it, as fast as he possibly could.

[vesper_verde]

"Oh. Huh." He peered into the nozzle of the fire extinguisher. "Cool."

Rather than get in the way of vengeful Stephanie, Marcelo set the extinguisher aside. Then he started peeling off his jacket and shirt to get Stephanie something to cover up with.

[hellfire_empath]

Brooke had seen Alexander disappear from the corner of her eye. She'd need to track him down later and apologize for the travesty that this evening had turned into.

More importantly, though, she had Stephanie to worry about. She snapped her fingers at a nearby society matron and attempted to make the woman feel charitable.

...nothing happened.

Probably because Brooke had never felt charitable for a single moment in her entire life.

Sigh. Looks like she wasn't going to get that fur stole to help cover Steph up after all.

Shaking her head, she lifted the hem of her gown and walked right behind Stephanie.

She'd help make Insomniac pay, if they caught him.

[iced_cherub]

Once the fog cleared Bobbi looked around. Seeing where Brook was she left Eve's side. She knew it would mean exposing her wings to others, but... She slid off the wrap she wore and handed it to Brook for her friend.

"Here."

[pyroprincess]

Once the rage had died down, Stephanie found herself ... quite naked and surrounded by an increasingly large and apprehensive crowd. She tried her best to cover herself, which honestly, wasn't all that fantastic. But nudity was one thing. Her body was pretty low on the things that she felt anxiety about.

But the secret was probably as good as out. She supposed it would be possible to claim it had been an illusion as well, but too many people knew better for that to really work. She frowned intensely. She wanted to find Insomniac and show him just why it was a bad idea to interfere with a Shaw.

She would, of course. But he was probably as good as gone tonight.

[vesper_verde]

Marcelo had both his shirt and jacket off by the time he approached his girlfriend. He saw her trying to cover up and did his best to shield her from some of the crowd.

"Querida, here." He offered her both articles of clothing. She could choose one or both with however she wished to cover up.

He would go out Insomniac hunting later. Possibly. Depending on what Stephanie wanted when they got home.

[hellfire_empath]

Brooke stopped and smiled down at Bobbi. She took the wrap and draped it over Bobbi's shoulders, careful to cover the younger girl's wings. "Enough harm's been done tonight to people I care about, Bobbi. Let's not add you to the list, alright?" She leaned down and air kissed Bobbi's right cheek. "But I won't forget this. Now come on," she said, indicating the direction that Stephanie and Marcelo had gone in.

[iced_cherub]

Bobbi nodded, She gave a small smile. "Alright, hope that jerk's really gone, I don't like the idea of bugs in me."

[call_me_phobos]

Alexander was annoyed. His suit was ruined and he'd had to hold back against the ingrates assaulting his person.

The only plus tonight was that Brooke was absolutely gorgeous in the use of her power. She was going to be extremely powerful...and very worthy of everything that would happen in the future.

"Perhaps tonight wasn't a total loss." Alexander said to himself as a few people gave him odd stares.