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

Library Garden 3

[ngm_rogues]

Parties.

Parties were fun. Parties were full of drunk people staggering about their daily, insignificant lives, supposing that they were having so much fun and that they could distract themselves from the nastiness, brutishness and shortness of their lives.

Well.

At first the skinny guy looked almost pitiable, and then one could see the slow trickle of blood out of his nose and the crazy bloodshot look in his eyes.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the elite ... all you bright young things of the oppressing classes ..." He took a glass of champagne from a waiter's hand and bolted it down. "You came here to have a party. Well, be careful what you wish for."

Hopped up on a shocking variety and high dosage of stimulants, he'd stayed up for over a week solid. His power was near its very peak, at a level that demanded the respect he'd been denied in his life. He began using that hideous power, planting images, sensations and emotions into minds.

"Every single one of you has a scorpion inside you that obeys my will. If you so much as think nasty thoughts at me, the scorpion will sting you from the inside. Get it too mad, and it'll come out to say hi to Daddy. Through. You."

He laughed maniacally and started to walk towards the group where Brooke, Stephanie, Alexander and the others were.

Re: Library Garden 3

[iced_cherub]

As probably the youngest there when she heard the voice she looked at the man.

Hearing what he said though she visually cringed because ew bugs in her? This feathery blond isn't fond of that idea. The glass of sparkling cider in her hand, well it explodes from rapid expansion because ice fills more space than liquids.

Part of her wonders if now would be a good time to see if she has a icy form like one of her genetic donors. If nothing else at least she knows she can handle temperatures too cold for the bug.

Re: Library Garden 3

[light_as_a_rock]

Eva is too lost in her own thoughts to immediately notice the amphetamine fueled lunatic advancing on them.

But she did notice the exploding glass.

"What... what did you do that for?"

She raised her hand to the side of her head, confused. Eva's conscious mind didn't realize it was under attack yet, but some instinct did, and kicked in her powers. The bench she was sitting on creaked and groaned as her weight increased along with her density.

She frowned hard.

Re: Library Garden 3

[realstarpower]

Ryan, being Ryan, fell too easily under the man's spell. One second, he'd been checking someone out, and the next, he was all ready to follow the bad man's instructions.

Re: Library Garden 3

[hellfire_empath]

Brooke had no such qualms. She raised her chin and straightened up her spine just a little bit, an expression of defiance crossing over her features. Planted images? Toying with emotions? Those were things that Brooke Aurelia Wyngarde had some experience in, either through her mother, her father, or her own self.

Calmly, she glanced at both Alexander and Stephanie - two of the strongest people she knew, and then looked back at the man.

"Please," she said darkly. "The oppressed are usually worse than the oppressors. The French proved it when they wanted Marie Antoinette's head on a platter and you're proving it now."

Re: Library Garden 3

[call_me_phobos]

Alexander felt the mental attack, for a moment, he almost succumbed. His anger at such an attack knew no bounds he wanted to tear this idiot limb from limb, even as he felt the sensations course through him.

That just made the God of Fear more angry.

"You sound like...every lowlife I've ever met. You're pathetic...and afraid of everyone." he said.

"In fact...let's see what you're /really/ afraid of..." Alexander declared.

And with that, he reached toward Insomniac's mind to seek out his fears.

Re: Library Garden 3

[ngm_rogues]

Insomniac's mind. Insomniac's mind is a swirling vortex of chaos, fuelled by powerful stimulants and kept on the edge of shrieking insanity by sleep deprivation. Looking for fear would not be an easy task in someone so far removed from whatever was normal. Mike knew he was being attacked, knew that eventually he'd find something- eventually being a few seconds.

"You there. The tanned woman. Deal with the one who isn't all cringey!" Insomniac barked, pointing towards Stephanie. He made her believe something, that she was a hellborn demon and he a wayward being of light. The War for Heaven was on, and all that was needed was one last push before Lucifer took his rightful place. Aw hell, yeah, that shit would distract him at least.

Smacking his lips obscenely, he looked towards Brooke. "Such a pretty, pretty face." His powers spiked again. "Shame about it melting." He sneered.

Re: Library Garden 3

[pyroprincess]

Stephanie went from being distinctly concerned about the state of arachnids inside her to standing up absolutely straight, stomping the ground madly and summoning forth her unholy wrath to face the foolish angel who had wandered so far down from Heaven. Insomniac's jaw dropped for a moment and went to an absolute manic grin as he realized his fortune. As for her part, she summoned a pyroplasmic jet which brought her roaring towards Alexander, burning off her clothes steadily as she didn't care about controlling that element of her power, eyes glowing-blue white and a look of bloody, murderous glee etched into her features.

Re: Library Garden 3

[iced_cherub]

Bobbi saw the attack and tried to draw enough water to at least try to deflect it. So what if the bug stung her, she'd freeze more to slow it. Because that sounded like it would work.

"Stop! Please don't hurt each other!"

Re: Library Garden 3

[light_as_a_rock]

Eva slowly stood up, mechanically scratching and brushing at her arms. Her conscious mind was still confused and foggy, the mental defenses placed by Professor Xavier when she was just a toddler and her own metamorphic nature attempting to fight Insomniac's influence. Wasn't this a party she was at? Why was there a naked woman on fire? She didn't go to those kind of parties, did she?

Meanwhile, part of her subconscious was trying to expel that scorpion. She grew denser and denser, cracks spreading along the paved walkway from her feet.

Re: Library Garden 3

[hellfire_empath]

"Stop." Brooke glared at Stephanie, pouring all of her emotion into that simple syllable. It was a forceful command. "Now." She turned her glare towards Insomniac and lifted the hem of her gown, stalking towards him, skirts rustling. "And you." Brooke raised her chin and locked eyes with Insomniac. "Go ahead. Throw your power at me." So she can tap into the core of his powers and throw it back at him, but he didn't need to know that.

[vesper_verde]

Marcelo was very aware what was happening behind him in the library. With hearing like his, he couldn't miss the hiss of smoke and the explosions. He was at one of the sets of doors out to the garden. He had two drinks in his hand, one for him and some good scotch for Stephanie.

He scrambled out into the garden to find...

... his naked and flaming girlfriend trying to fry Alexander.

"Stephanie!" He had no idea what was going on, but Steph using her mutant powers so blatantly was all kinds of wrong. He set both drinks in his hands on a small table as he tried to get himself between Stephanie and Alexander.

"Querida, stop!" He was only human, but it was the best he could do with the reflexes he had.

[frostfurlady]

"Och, now tha's just disgusting!" Danielle can't help but mutter in reaction to the emotional energies all over the place now. But she tries to pull herself together to exude calm.

[call_me_phobos]

Alexander was quite focused upon finding Insomniac's fears in order to bring him low, so he didn't immediately realize that Stephanie Shaw was attacking him.

The proximity of her heat and flame caught Alexander by surprise. The heat itself wasn't an issue as Alexander had spent time in the forge of Hephaestus alongside his father in the past. The plasma itself seared through his clothing, however, leaving the (demi)God of Fear mostly covered at the present time.

"Stephanie...we've only /just/ met!" Alexander quipped. "Besides, I'm spoken for by my muse, who is also your dear friend. You're very beautiful and probably a lot of fun, but THIS...just isn't going to work out." he grunts as the plasma licks at his skin.

And with that, Alexander vanished and reappeared behind Insomniac, whom he would attempt to grasp by the neck and bodily hurl /through/ the nearest wall.

[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.